History of Nokia

Nokia began its life by a river of the same name in Finland when Fredrik Idestam set up a wood-pulp mill to manufacture paper in 1865. In 1898 a rubber company was established in the same region although unconnected with the other business. Later, in 1912, a company that became known as the Finnish Cable Works opened in the centre of Helsinki. Ten years on, the Finnish Rubber Works bought majority shares in both Finnish Cable Works and Nokia Ab, the ground wood producer. Thus the three independent companies began to pool their resources and co-operate, evolving into a more cohesive group.


Over time a community established itself around the factories and became the town of Nokia. The companies continued to operate under a single umbrella for some considerable time. In fact it was only as recently as 1966 that the companies decided officially to merge and Nokia began functioning as the business that we recognise today. When all of the Nokia divisions joined in the 1960’s, electronics made up about 3% of the overall company sales. By 1980, Nokia had begun focusing its energies internationally on becoming a communications company. It was around this time that a department called Dedicated Networks was set up to deal specifically with transmission technology and Private Mobile Radio (PMR). Although initially based in Finland, Dedicated Networks had a global sales base. The seeds of Nokia’s eventual international success had been planted.