Finnish vendor Nokia has opened a 55,000 square-metre campus in Oulu in its home country for 5G/6G design, manufacturing, and testing. It integrates a bunch of Industry 4.0 tech, and a range of Industry 4.0 partners.
In sum – what to know:
Next-gen networks – new Nokia campus will design, test, and manufacture 5G/6G networks.
Smart co-creation – the site integrates smart factory tech, and works as a collaborative R&D site.
Environmental focus – the campus claims near-zero CO₂ emissions, recycles all waste, heats homes.
Nokia has opened a new research and manufacturing campus in Oulu, in Finland, to build 5G and 6G radio networks for the AI era. It is calling the site ‘the home or radio’, and claims it is “the world’s most advanced hub” for cellular radio design and manufacturing. The company has installed “some of the world’s most advanced” radio access (RAN) laboratory and manufacturing technology”, it said. The campus measures 55,000 square metres, and will employ 3,000 staff. The company’s new 5G and 6G networks will be “designed, tested and built in Europe,” it said.
The new campus covers research and development (R&D), design and manufacturing, and testing and validation of 5G and 6G RAN products. Its first focus is on radio patents and standardisation, as well as system-on-chips (SoCs), and other hardware and software componentry. Part of the site, a new production factory, called Oulu Factory, will manufacture the company’s radio and baseband products for both civilian and defense applications. Nokia said the setup strengthens Oulu’s “ecosystem as a global testbed for resilient and secure networks”.
The facility will host universities and other research institutions, plus large enterprise partners and innovative start-up operations (“working alongside” Nokia’s own staff). NATO’s DIANA (Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic) initiative will host a test centre at the site, also. All the new-fangled Industry 4.0 pieces are in place at the factory setup, and throughout the campus, it seems – including dedicated 5G, IoT, and AI systems to underpin smart design and production processes, and orchestrate virtual and physical (“simulated and real-world”) design, build, test functions.
Nokia promoted the site’s green credentials, also. The site uses renewable energy (“purchased green”); all surplus energy is fed back into the district heating system to heat 20,000 local households in Oulu, it said. It stated: “The on-site energy station is one of the world’s largest CO2-based district heating and cooling plants.” The campus claims a “100-percent waste utilization rate and 99 percent avoidance in CO2 emissions” – apparently.
Construction started in the second half of 2022; the first employees moved in in the first half of this year. An opening ceremony last week was attended by the Finnish president, Alexander Stubb, with officials from the Finnish government, plus customers and partners. Stubb said: “This investment is great news and it’s a statement that it pays off to invest in Finland. It also says that network infrastructure is key – when you’re working on 5G or 6G, you are creating the neural network of whatever we do in AI, whatever we do in robotization or IoT.”
Justin Hotard, president and chief executive at Nokia, commented: “Our teams in Oulu are shaping the future of 5G and 6G developing our most advanced radio networks. Oulu has a unique ecosystem that integrates Nokia’s R&D and smart manufacturing with an ecosystem of partners – including universities, start-ups, and NATO’s DIANA test center. Oulu embodies our culture of innovation and the new campus will be essential to advancing connectivity necessary to power the AI supercycle.”
