Nokia quits Russia over Ukraine invasion

Nokia is the second of the world's biggest telco network kit makers to turn its back on Russia in as many days due to the continuing invasion in Ukraine. Yesterday, Ericsson "indefinitely" pulled out of the country. "It has been clear for Nokia since the early days of the invasion of Ukraine that continuing our presence in …

[adam 40]

Yeah but they didn't stop the "cherry on the cake" after you have sold your boxen:

"as we exit we will aim to provide the necessary support to maintain the networks and are applying for the relevant licenses to enable this support in compliance with current sanctions."

... remote support!

I bet those nice juicy contracts are in place still.

Same goes for Ericsson, who said nothing about the support side of it.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

What are they going to pay in? Rusty warships?

Soon Ericson could have the 6th largest navy

[Anonymous Coward]

Only if the Ukrainian 1st Amphibious Tractor Division doesn't get there first.

[MacroRodent]

boom

I recently heard Ukraine received antiship missiles from the UK. The Russian Black Sea fleet may soon not be fit for use as a payment.

[Dinanziame]

Re: boom

You could be correct:

Russian navy evacuates flagship in Black Sea. Ukraine claims it was hit by a missile

[Anonymous Coward]

@adam 40 - Remote support

will be assured by US intelligence agencies in order to ease the burden on Finnish network maker.

[Muppet Boss]

>I bet those nice juicy contracts are in place still.

>Same goes for Ericsson, who said nothing about the support side of it.

Talking about mobile, most Russian mobile carriers use Procera (now part of Sandvine) as their DPI solution for the Internet censorship and this relationship went full of mutual love for many years. I would be very much interested to learn about plans of these US/Canadian companies to continue selling censorship tools to the Russian dictatorship and providing subscriptions and support.

Not the least surprised anyway as it recently came out that the EU companies continued selling the Russian dictatorship "riot control agents" after 2014 and Russian tanks in Ukraine have all-new navigation systems from Safran and Thales. Pecunia non olet they say, now the Euro smells of blood.

[Xalran]

Insider information :

All the support at Ericsson is remote unless you need to replace hardware... and in that case it's usually a subcontractor that handles the HW replacement.

It has been that way for years.

Currently, it's impossible for a new customer to avoid the Ericsson remote support solution. ( the fact that it's mandatory is tucked somwhere in the contracts )

[martinusher]

Who?

My first thought on this article was "Who?". I didn't know Nokia was much of a force in the mobile space any more.

The second thought it that any shortfall of western equipment can be easily made up with kit from China.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Who?

But all that Huawei 5g stuff is full of Chinese spyware remember

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Who?

The consumer side of Nokia was annihilated by Microsoft and is now just a brand name that is bought and sold by firms wanting to look like big players in the phone market.

The infrastructure side of Nokia was unaffected by all of that and is a major player with a decent reputation.

[dajames]

Re: Who?

The consumer side of Nokia was annihilated by Microsoft and is now just a brand name that is bought and sold by firms wanting to look like big players in the phone market.

A little harsh. "Nokia" phones today are sold by HMD Global which is the rump of the phone company that Nokia sold to Microsoft and then bought back. HMD Global is Finnish, and is run largely by ex-Nokia people. Their offices rub shoulders with Nokia's offices in Espoo.

HMD's phones are made in China and Vietnam by FIH Mobile, a company that is (to cut a long story short) partly owned by Foxcon and partly by HMD.

They sell a few million phones a year. Quite nicely made devices running a fairly vanilla version of Android.

So, not exactly "annihilated".

[Anonymous Coward]

Western governments have expressed concerns...

about the risk of critical telecommunication network infrastructure in Russia failing. Western ha ha, governments ha ha ha, concerns ha ha ha ha... I've never laughed that much in a very long time. Since the start of the (still unfinished) Cold War it is for the first time I hear Western governments are worried about the fate of their mortal enemy. I wonder what could possibly follow next.

[Ken Hagan]

Re: Western governments have expressed concerns...

Mobiles are probably the only remaining route for facts to penetrate Putin's propoganda machine, so I have no problem with genuinely helping to maintain that network.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Ken Hagan - Re: Western governments have expressed concerns...

Facts! Be honest and call them by the same name, propaganda. It's the good type maybe, but it's still propaganda. It is publicizing the desired version of the events.

[bombastic bob]

Re: Western governments have expressed concerns...

the problem is the Russian government (specifically Pootie) and not the Russian people.

I think the sanctions and whatnot are being applied in the wrong places.

[imanidiot]

Re: Western governments have expressed concerns...

It seems the majority of the Russian populace is either brainwashed into/stupid enough to believing Putin or are completely indifferent to the matter. So I say, let them suffer with the rest of their oligarchs

[veti]

Re: Western governments have expressed concerns...

When you only have one source of information, even if you know it can't be trusted, you tend to believe it anyway. What alternative do you have?

That's why Putin has cut off huge chunks of the Internet from access inside Russia.

[phuzz]

Re: Western governments have expressed concerns...

brainwashed into/stupid enough to believing Putin

When you can get arrested in Moscow for holding up a blank sign, I suspect a lot of Russians are just keeping quiet and hoping to avoid the attentions of the security services.

>>>>>> 1984 is rather less allegorical than we might wish

[Xalran]

Re: Western governments have expressed concerns...

It's something almost never mentionned, but in many countries Firemens, Emergency rescue and Police have/are slowly moving from dedicated networks to specific ( understand : private ) mobile networks using the radio network of all the local operators. ( usually this type of application sits on 3 or 4 Dell ( or assimilated ) servers )

You don't want to be unable to reach the ER or the fire rescue when you need them because the critical components in the network failed.

[sanmigueelbeer]

We have asked Huawei if it too is currently reviewing operations in Russia but the company wasn't immediately available to respond.

Quit/Suspend Russian operations, no-Huawei-Jose!

[First Light]

NATO problem?

Are Finnish companies concerned about the business environment in Russia if their country (as seems likely) joins NATO by June of this year?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/11/sweden-and-finland-make-moves-to-join-nato

[veti]

Re: NATO problem?

Plenty of NATO countries did plenty of business with Russia up to about seven weeks ago. Some companies based in NATO countries still have a presence there. I don't see how NATO membership would make any difference to this decision.

[First Light]

Re: NATO problem?

I mean that I would expect a backlash from Russia when Finland joins NATO and perhaps these companies don't want personnel on the ground when it does. Finland has famously not been part of NATO and various Russian government types have been issuing dark warnings about the country joining it.