By Bengt O. Hallberg

In 1985, Televerket (the Swedish Telecommunication Authority) field tested BOH Optical AB’s three-channel fiber-optic WDM system for video and audio transmission. They wanted to use the same technology but for drop/insert networks adapted to Nokia’s electronics.

Nokia

First, I had to get Nokia interested in participating in the project. Then, I had to secure funding for my company’s portion of the project management, and the development of the fiber-optic part of it.

Nokia's management team, consisting of Gunnulf Mårtensson and Rune Udd, welcomed the initiative. They appointed Leif Wikberg, who hold a master's degree in engineering, to oversee the technical aspects of the project. I remember our first meeting, and I felt embarrassed. The management team I worked with spoke Swedish, as did Leif.

To start our first meeting on a positive note, I said, “You speak Swedish well.” Leif modestly replied, "It's my native language." If there had been a trapdoor in the floor, I would have opened it and disappeared right then and there. It was a slip on my part.

About Finland

You should know that Finnish, the dominant language in Finland, is incomprehensible to Scandinavians. Finland and Sweden were one country until 1809, when they were separated after a war with Russia. The Russians then exerted strong influence over Finland until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Swedish had been the official language of the kingdom, with its seat in Stockholm, Sweden, prior to that, and thus became the language of its government there. Finland remains bilingual, but Swedish-speaking Finns are a minority whose numbers are declining.

Finland as industrial nation

Finland is the second strongest industrial nation in the Nordic region after Sweden. Our collaboration worked very well. While BOH Optical AB was developing fiber-optic WDM systems, Televerket developed the world’s first fully automated cell phone system: NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephone). It was launched in Sweden in 1981. They began that work as early as the 1950s.

The US Export ban

At that time, the United States had banned the export of high-tech products to the Soviet Union. When older high-tech electronics from the U.S. became available for export, Nokia was able to export its older telecommunications systems, which contained components featuring such technology, to the Soviet Union. These were systems that were no longer of interest to Western telecom operators. Nokia was thus able to generate a second round of sales for older products for which all development and production setup costs had already been recouped through previous sales.

Nokia: The Cell Phone Leader

Though not on the same scale as the Swedish company Ericsson, Nokia manufactured telecommunications systems. However, Nokia achieved international success with its cell phones in the late 1980s, becoming the world’s leading manufacturer in the 1990s.

In collaboration with Televerket, Ericsson manufactured the NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephone) system. It was launched in 1981. They also manufactured cell phones. This manufacturing operation later transitioned into a partnership with Sony. Despite fierce competition from the Chinese company Huawei, Ericsson still holds a leading position in cellular systems today. Nokia lost its lead in the 2000s when smartphones became popular, largely because of Apple’s release of the iPhone in 2007.

System presentations

The drop/insert system was publicly demonstrated for the first time at the European Conference on Optical Communication, September 13-17, 1987 (ECOC 87) in Helsinki at the exhibition in connection with the conference. Nokia wanted to establish a presence in Australia and made a significant effort there in connection with Australian Conference on Optical Fibre Technology (ACOFT) 1987, Surfers Paradise, Queensland which took place in December that year. I gave a presentation on the system.

BOH Optical AB - a global leader

In 1987, BOH Optical AB was a global leader in WDM technology, working in collaboration with Nokia in Finland and NKT in Denmark. Read my next blog post to find out what happened next.

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