Nokia to buy Panasonic network business

Nokia Networks this week said it has agreed to acquire part of the wireless networks business of Japanese electronics company Panasonic System Networks for an undisclosed sum. The agreement covers Panasonic’s LTE and 3G base station business and related wireless equipment.

Under the terms of the agreement, assets and business contracts with Panasonic’s customers are being transferred to Nokia Networks in Japan, including Panasonic employees.

Through this acquisition, Nokia Networks said it aims to reinforce and further improve efficiency and quality control for product development and R&D, as well as strengthen its market share for wireless equipment in Japan.

“Japan is a key market for us, and this agreement is a major milestone in forging closer ties in Japan,” said Ashish Chowdhary, Executive Vice President, AMEA, Nokia Networks. “The acquisition of part of Panasonic’s wireless network business would further strengthen our mobile broadband portfolio and add significant value for Japanese operators.”

Japan, like South Korea, has a very advanced mobile market and while not always the first to deploy new technologies, typically sees very rapid adoption and subsequent saturation. South Korea is expected to have a pilot 5G network available for the Winter Olympics in 2018 and commercial offerings by 2020, while Japan is also aiming for a 2020 launch of the technology.

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In mid-May, leading Japanese carrier NTT Docomo farmed out contracts to several vendors in order to pilot 5G technologies. Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Fujitsu, NEC, Nokia and Samsung have all been selected to work on a 5G proof of concept system, using the 15GHz frequency band for the air interface as well as exploring the potential of millimeter wave technology in the 70GHz spectrum band.

“5G studies are starting to gain real momentum as we point toward 2020. We appreciate that 5G will provide significant performance enhancements to support future new applications that will impact both users and industry,” said Seizo Onoe, executive vice president and CTO at NTT Docomo, commenting on the pilot.