WEBVTT - The Rise and Fall of Nokia 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:07.240 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from half 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:13.760 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:16.480 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer here 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:18.680 at hell Stuff Works and I love all things tech. 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:21.960 And in the last episode, I chronicled the year journey 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:25.040 of Nakia from a paper mill to a company that 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:28.520 was just starting to develop electronics. And before I get 0:00:28.560 --> 0:00:30.960 into this, like I said in the last episode, I'm 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:34.720 pronouncing it Nakia. But of course people have said Nokia 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:37.839 or Nokia. There are a lot of different pronunciations for it. 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:41.479 I'm going with Nakia, and if it's wrong, it's wrong. 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:44.519 But I'm gonna try and be consistent. Today we'll pick 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:47.520 up with Nakia in the nineteen sixties and quickly make 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:49.879 our way up to how it helped define the cellular 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:52.960 phone age in the nineteen nineties, and then what happened 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:56.800 after that, because it was a pretty precipitous fall, but 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:59.040 it wasn't like it was just a steady climb either. 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:04.320 Up on the formation of the Nakia Corporation, businessmen named 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:09.440 Bjorn George Wilhelm Westerland became the first president and CEO 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:12.560 of Nakia. Now he began to look for ways to 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:17.760 expand into new fields like electronics in telecommunications. He also 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:20.759 encouraged the research and development departments in Nakia to work 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:24.319 on their own projects, something that Google would copy decades later, 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:28.480 sort of like that of your weekly time can be 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:31.200 dedicated to personal projects. It was similar in that way, 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:35.679 except not necessarily laid out specifically as twenty percent of 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:39.200 your time. But the whole idea was get smart people together, 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:41.640 let them work on things that they think are interesting, 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:45.440 and you might be able to benefit from that. Nakia 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:49.040 would diversify and begin investing in new businesses, nearly all 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:52.280 of which would cater to the Soviet Union's need for 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:58.880 electronics and robotics, including computers. Nakia also created manufacturing facilities 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:03.000 for scientific equipment, again for the Soviet Union. While the 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:05.800 U s s R. Was doing business with Finland, the 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:10.120 US was becoming increasingly agitated by the whole thing, because 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:13.240 this was during the Cold War between the United States 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:16.000 and the U. S s R. And America began to 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:20.079 let Nakia know that it was being watched carefully. Nakia 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:23.520 was importing components from the United States and then incorporating 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:26.320 them in products that there was ultimately selling in the 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:29.480 U S s R, which wasn't really helping things with 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:31.760 the U. S relations because the United States sort of 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:34.519 had this policy of let's not help the Soviets out 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:38.160 if we can possibly avoid it, and this created a 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:43.360 very high tense situation throughout the entire world, and Finland 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:46.800 in general and Nachia in particular, we're kind of straddling 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:50.360 the line a little bit. According to the newspaper Madras Courier, 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:54.040 Nakia was building computers for the Soviet Union by nineteen 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:57.240 seventy one. Now, I say according to the newspaper, because 0:02:57.320 --> 0:02:59.560 it's actually pretty hard to find a lot of definitive 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:03.919 information in regarding Nakias products during this era. The website 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:06.960 itself is pretty generic when it comes to covering this. 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:09.359 It kind of talks about the founding of the company 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:11.440 as a paper mill and then jumps ahead into the 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:14.600 nineteen eighties, skipping a whole lot of stuff in the middle. 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:19.560 Jorn Westerland would retire as CEO in nineteen seventy seven, 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:23.880 and he was replaced by Kari and Tero Oswald Kairamo. 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:28.120 Kiamo had started at Nakia as an engineer in wood 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:31.120 processing back when the company was still heavily involved in 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:35.640 forestry industries. Like his predecessor, Karaimo wanted to grow Nakia 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:40.800 and acquire new businesses. He aggressively pursued new opportunities, sometimes 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:44.880 to the consternation of analysts. Some industry experts were worried 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:48.600 that Nakia was over extending itself, particularly with regards to 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:53.160 consumer electronics, which was already a crowded space with fierce 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:57.000 competition from the United States and Japanese companies. But that 0:03:57.080 --> 0:04:00.920 did not stop Kairamo from pursuing them, and in nineteen 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:04.320 seventy nine, Knakia entered into a partnership with a Finish 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:09.000 television and electronics company called Solaura. Their joint venture was 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:15.520 called Mobira Oi, a radio telecommunications network and electronics brand. 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:19.560 Early radio phones were pretty limited, operating in the v 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:23.800 h F frequency range, the very high frequency range, and 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:27.920 requiring large antennas and hefty batteries, but this marked Knakia's 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:33.000 first steps into what would become cellular phone technology. In fact, 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:35.560 now is a good time to talk about cellular phone 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:39.440 technology in general. Prior to cellular phones, radio telephones were 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:41.520 pretty limited. This has to do with the physics of 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:46.160 radio signal transmissions as well as limitations on technology. Now, 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:49.680 maybe you've played with radios and wondered what elements determined 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:52.080 how far the radios can communicate with each other, like 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:55.120 if you've had walkie talkies, for example, And as it 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:58.360 turns out, there are several factors that determine how far 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:01.680 a radio can transmit signals. So let's start with some 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:06.160 basic facts about radio waves. The radio frequency spectrum is 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:10.800 a significant chunk of the overall electromagnetic spectrum. It ranges 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:13.600 on the low end with very low frequency signals, which 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:15.440 have a wavelength that can be as long as a 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:19.600 hundred kilometers or sixty two miles for one wave at 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:22.919 that wavelength. The radio signals frequency, as in the number 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:26.480 of cycles of waves that go past an arbitrary point 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:31.040 in space within a second, is three thousand cycles a second, 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:34.560 or three kilo hurts. That means three thousand of those 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:37.919 waves would pass through a point in space every second 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:41.200 as the signals passed through the area. On the high end, 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:46.119 you have extremely high frequency radio waves which measure point 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:50.320 zero zero one meters or point zero four inches in 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:54.839 wavelength and have a frequency of three hundred thousand mega hurts. 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:58.560 That means three hundred billion waves will pass through a 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:02.160 given point in one set n as the signal passes through. 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:06.240 Radio wavelength is one factor that determines how far a 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:10.080 radio signal will travel on Earth. A m radio signals, 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:13.400 which in the United States range from five killer hurts 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:16.279 to one point six oh five Mega hurts, have a 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:19.800 long enough wavelength to follow the curvature of the Earth 0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:22.520 and bounce off the atmosphere, meaning they can travel a 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:27.239 really long distance. They can travel beyond the horizon. Shorter wavelengths, 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:29.880 such as the ones that the US reserves for radio 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:35.760 communication for things like wireless radios and walkie talkies, cellular phones, 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:37.840 that kind of thing. They travel in the line of 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:41.560 sight between a transmitter and a receiver. Now that does 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:44.120 not necessarily mean that you have to be able to 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:48.160 physically see the receiver from the transmitter. For one thing, 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:52.200 radio waves can penetrate some substances just fine, although other 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:55.279 substances can reflect radio waves and cause them to bounce back, 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.000 which I guess is being redundant, but you get what 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:01.720 I'm saying. And because the Earth is curvature, that limits 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:04.760 how far a transmitter can send a signal to a 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:09.039 receiver because the Earth physically curves away from the line 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:11.960 of transmission. If you send out a radio signal straight 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:14.600 out from your position. Let's say you're standing up and 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:17.600 you send out a radio signal, that radio signal is 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:20.200 going to continue in a straight line even as the 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:25.200 Earth curves away from it. So eventually the Earth curves 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:27.000 away enough where no one's going to be able to 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:29.160 receive that signal, even if it were strong enough to 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:32.080 keep on going and be strong enough to be picked 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:34.960 up by an antenna. So the radio signals will just 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:37.560 keep on going out into space rather than curving along 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:39.640 the Earth. This, by the way, is one of the 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:42.360 many pieces of evidence that proves the Earth is in 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:46.360 fact round, as if we didn't have enough already. But 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:49.560 you know there are flat earthers out there. If in 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:51.840 fact the Earth was flat, you would not have this 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:56.080 problem with radio transmissions. So that's a pretty strong evidence 0:07:56.240 --> 0:08:00.560 that the Earth is round. Another limiting factor is transmission power. 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:03.000 The power behind the signal helps determine how far it 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:05.280 can travel. Technically, it's not how far it can travel, 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:09.000 but how strong the signal is once it gets beyond 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:12.160 a certain point from its transmission Now imagine a radio 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:16.600 transmission signal going out in all directions from a transmission antenna. 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:18.360 Let's just say it's a regular antenna. It's not a 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:22.480 directional antenna. You're sending a broadcast signal to this antenna. 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:27.640 It's sending it out in essentially a sphere that extends 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:31.440 out from that antenna. Now, as the transmission moves further 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:36.439 from the antenna, the signal is spread over a wider area. Right, 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:41.000 it's getting it's it's thinning out, it's getting spread across 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:45.400 more and more space. The law of conservation of energy 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:48.440 tells us that the further out you are from a transmitter, 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:52.080 the weaker the signal will be because it's spread over 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:55.520 a greater area, and eventually you'll be too far from 0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:58.680 the source of transmission to pick up any useful signal. 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:00.640 It'll be too weak for you to do anything with it, 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:03.720 to be able to hear anything. Early mobile phones were 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:07.080 big and bulky, largely because they needed a powerful transmitter 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:09.760 to get a signal to a nearby radio tower, which 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:13.880 would then patch the call into a more traditional telecommunications infrastructure, 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:17.120 in other words, into the regular phone system. This is 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:19.920 part of the reason why early consumer mobile phones were 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:23.240 mostly car phones because they could pull energy from the 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:26.960 car's battery, or they could be big, bulky things that 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:29.600 you didn't carry around. They'd be too heavy to carry around, 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:31.959 but you could drive them around in your car, and 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:34.320 they would rely on a battery that was strong enough 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:37.960 to power a transmitter that could send a signal to 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:41.960 a radio tower nearby. And typically cities would have a 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:45.520 single radio tower, maybe a couple of radio towers, and 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:48.400 each radio tower was only able to handle maybe a 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:53.120 couple of dozen channels of communications simultaneously, which really limited 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:55.839 the number of people who could communicate via radio phones 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:59.280 at a single time, because once that channel is activated, 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:02.200 no one will can use it. So if you've got 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:05.800 a radio tower and it can only handle maybe twenty 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:09.079 four twenty six channels, one of those channels is going 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:13.199 to be used for the signal you're sending out. The 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:15.640 communication signal you're sending out, one of them would be 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:18.839 used for the signal you're getting back. So each person 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:21.839 is essentially taking up two channels, and that's because you 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:24.200 would want to be able to speak and here at 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:26.960 the same time. If you're using a single channel for 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:30.200 a communication back and forth, only one person can speak 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:32.880 at a given time. You may have experienced this if 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:36.320 you've used CB radio or walkie talkies or anything like that. 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:40.160 Cellular technology helped change this by creating a new means 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:43.160 of sending signals across the network. Rather than putting a 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:46.480 few large radio antennas and strategic locations in major cities, 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:50.840 the cellular tower approach took a totally different approach. More 0:10:50.840 --> 0:10:53.839 on that in just a second, but first let's take 0:10:54.000 --> 0:11:04.000 a quick break to thank our sponsor. Now, before I 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:06.560 went into the break, I mentioned that a primitive walkie 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:10.720 talkie can only handle one channel of communication. It's called 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:14.240 a half duplex radio. That means that all parties are 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:17.679 communicating over that same frequency, and thus only one person 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:20.800 can talk on that frequency at any given time. And 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:24.640 that's why we ended up developing a way of explaining 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:26.400 to people when we were done talking. You know, you 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:28.920 say over at the end of a sentence, meaning you 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:33.120 are done with that thought, and that allows other parties 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:35.440 to have a chance to chat and add in things, 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:37.880 and they would say over when they were done, and 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:40.400 that's how you would be able to manage communication traffic 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:44.120 across this single channel. A cell phone is a full 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:47.800 duplex device which uses one frequency for sending communications and 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:51.840 one for receiving communicating signals, which means multiple people can 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:54.679 talk over each other. And cell phones have the ability 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:58.520 to communicate over more than a fifteen hundred channels and 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:01.360 they don't need to send signals for a far because 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:04.720 of cell towers. Now, the cell and cell phone refers 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:07.880 to regions of coverage, and these regions of coverage are 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:11.800 actually pretty small. Each cell region has an allocation of 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:15.560 channels that represents a fraction of all available signals for 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:18.440 cell phones. So let's say you're looking at a map 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:22.119 of a region. Let's say it's a city, and imagine 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:26.120 that the the map has an overlay on top of 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:30.480 it to show the cell tower allocation, and it would 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:33.360 look kind of like a hexagonal overlay. So if you've 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:36.959 ever seen hexagonal maps that are often used in gaming, 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:39.720 just imagine one of those overlaid on top of a 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:45.320 city map. Each hexagon represents a cell, the center of 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:49.040 which you would argue is the cell tower, and uh, 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:53.000 each cell would have one seventh of all the channels 0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:57.880 available for communication in that city. No two adjacent cells 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:00.920 would have the same range of signals, So this is 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:03.080 just for simplicity's sake. Well, I'm just going to use 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:05.040 this as an example. This is not the way it 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:09.400 actually shakes out. But let's imagine hypothetically that you have 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:14.000 seven hundred channels to work with the center hexagon. When 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:16.360 you start off, Let's say that you're at your location 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:19.040 and you're looking at a map. The hexagon you are 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:23.280 in is using channels one through one hundred. The cell 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:27.600 directly to your north can use signals on one through 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:32.240 two hundred, and then you move clockwise around your center hexagon. 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:36.680 You look at each hexagon that's adjacent to yours. Each 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:40.559 one would have the next range of signals, so two 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:43.560 hundred one to three hundred, the next one three one 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:46.720 to four hundred, and so on. Now, because cell phones 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:50.960 transmit at a low power signal, just at a few watts, 0:13:51.440 --> 0:13:54.920 the transmissions do not go very far. The signal attenuates 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:58.520 enough it it loses enough energy that it's not going 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:03.079 to be picked up the on the next cell tower hexagon. 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:06.920 You don't have to worry about interfering with the immediate neighbors. 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:10.520 That means you can actually reuse the channels again once 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:14.400 you have a different cell in between them, so an 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:18.480 entire city could use just seven channels this way, repeating 0:14:18.559 --> 0:14:22.240 channels once there's enough space between two cell towers that 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:27.000 use that same range, so your center hexagon and a 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:30.080 hexagon on the other side of one of your neighbors 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:34.400 could use the exact same set of frequencies because you're 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:37.600 not going to interfere with your transmissions. The big advantage 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:41.040 of cell phones is obviously that their mobile, and as 0:14:41.040 --> 0:14:44.920 you move towards the edge of a cell, your cells tower, 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:48.560 the one that's in the hexagon you are currently in, 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:52.800 it starts to detect that your signal is diminishing in strength. Meanwhile, 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:56.360 the neighboring cell tower is picking up that your signal 0:14:56.440 --> 0:14:58.800 is starting to get stronger. Now, every cell tower is 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:02.840 monitoring the entire a range of channels, not just the 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:06.240 channels that are specific to that cell, so they can 0:15:06.280 --> 0:15:09.720 they can monitor all of the channels of communication. They're 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:13.520 only really concerned with the block of channels that are 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:16.600 assigned to that particular cell. However, now when you get 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:22.000 close enough to the new cell, your old cell tower, 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:25.120 the one that was where you used to be, will 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:29.080 hand off the signal to its neighbor, to whatever neighboring 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:32.640 tower you're heading toward, and that will send instructions to 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:37.280 your phone that will switch channel frequencies. This all happens seamlessly. 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:40.040 It can happen in the middle of a conversation, and 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:42.480 it happens so quickly that we humans don't even notice 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:46.240 that it happens. Assuming that everything is working properly, and 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:49.040 you can have a call on a speaker phone and 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:52.000 pass through half a dozen cells through a single call 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:55.520 as you're driving across town, and you wouldn't have a problem, 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:58.440 assuming everything's working the way it's supposed to. Now, this 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:02.880 concept of cell towers dates back to about nineteen seventy one, 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:05.800 when A T and T referred to splitting phone service 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:09.800 in cities into areas called cells. The first mobile phone 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:13.800 call happened in nineteen seventy three when Dr Martin Cooper 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:16.720 of Motorola made the first cell phone call to Dr 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:20.320 Joel s Ingle, who was the head of Bell Labs. So, 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:23.200 in other words, Dr Cooper called up his biggest competitor 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:26.120 for the first cell phone call, which I think is 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:29.480 pretty awesome. And it took about a decade in the 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:32.600 United States for companies to build out this technology. And 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:34.840 the protocols and the infrastructure to make cell phones a 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:38.440 viable commercial product that was already taking place in Europe, 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:42.160 but we were a little bit behind here in the US. Now, 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:44.760 that's a basic overview of how cellular towers work, and 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:47.080 there's a lot more detail than what I just mentioned, 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:50.720 including the differences between analog and digital cellular service, but 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:53.760 it's good enough for our discussions about Nokia. So let's 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:57.040 get back to that company. While the VHF phone service 0:16:57.040 --> 0:17:01.600 the Nokia launched in the late seventies wasn't cellular necessarily, 0:17:01.640 --> 0:17:03.840 not not in the same way that we would call 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:06.840 it today, the company soon focused on developing cell phones 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:10.600 due to the construction of the Nordic Mobile Telephone Network 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:16.640 or in MT. This network provided coverage across Finland, Sweden, Denmark, 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:20.040 and Norway and then later Iceland, making it the first 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:24.800 international cellular network. The networks launched in Sweden and Norway 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:28.760 in one and then in Finland and Denmark the following year, 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:32.439 and that gave companies like Nokia the opportunity to develop 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:36.560 handsets for consumers. During this you are using the service 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:43.439 as its backbone. Ino Nokia released the Mobira Senator this 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:46.159 was a car phone and had a hefty battery to 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:48.920 provide for the transmission strength needed to send signals from 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:51.879 the phone to a radio tower, and the Senator weighed 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:57.359 twenty two pounds or ten krams. Pretty heavy phone. You 0:17:57.359 --> 0:17:59.119 can see why. It was a car phone, not a 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:02.080 cell phone that you would carry around with you. While 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:05.160 the Senator saw a limited success, it became the first 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:08.720 step towards Nokia asserting itself in a growing industry, and 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:13.080 the company would release a slightly lighter transportable phone that 0:18:13.160 --> 0:18:17.080 was what they called it, called the Mobira Talkman, which 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:20.359 weighed in at eleven pounds or five kilograms, so half 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:23.520 the weight of the Senator, but still pretty darn heavy. 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:28.120 In seven, the company, still producing phones under the Mobira name, 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:31.679 introduced the first handheld mobile phone and they called it 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:35.160 the Mobira Cityman nine hundred. It weighed about one point 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:39.000 six eight pounds or seven sixty grams. That's according to 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:41.280 one source. I saw everything from seven hundred and sixty 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:44.240 grams up to eight hundred grams, so one point six 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:46.960 eight to like one point seven six pounds somewhere in 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:50.080 that range. It also cost a pretty penny. The price 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:53.080 tag for the handset which was in a brick style 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:57.119 with a big antenna, and this was a big mobile phone. 0:18:58.040 --> 0:19:01.959 It cost twenty four thousand finish marks back in nineteen 0:19:02.000 --> 0:19:05.000 eight seven. That would be about five thousand, four hundred 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:08.159 fifty dollars in US money at the time, So we 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:12.120 adjust that for inflation, that would be worth about eleven thousand, 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:16.560 eight hundred forty three dollars today. So imagine spending nearly 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:20.520 twelve thousand dollars for a mobile phone. It got the 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:25.600 nickname Gorba in Finland. Why because during a press conference 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:30.360 in nineteen eighty seven, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was photographed 0:19:30.600 --> 0:19:34.560 using one he called uh Moscow. I believe during the 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:38.679 press conference using such a phone in night a highly 0:19:38.720 --> 0:19:43.000 competitive electronics market meant that Nakia saw a big drop 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:48.480 in profits. Times were getting tight for Nakia. CEO Kairamo, 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:51.600 who had also served as chairman between nineteen eighty six 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:55.919 and nineteen eighty eight, tragically ended his own life in 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:59.520 December Night, a fact that Nokia at first tried to 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:03.120 keep Wyatt. While there has been speculation over what moved 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:08.000 Karramo to commit suicide, I found no definitive reason. Though 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:11.320 there's no doubt he was under tremendous stress at the time, 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:14.280 though whether or not that directly contributed, I can't say. 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:20.320 Simo Virlato assumed control of the company, at which at 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:25.480 the time was still several businesses in very different industries, 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:29.560 all kind of gloamed on together. This new CEO called 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:32.719 for a complete restructuring of the company, and the company 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:36.320 began to divest itself of various businesses, including the Finished 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:42.120 Rubber Works, which was the first major company to create Nokia. 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:43.919 I mean, you remember, there was the paper mill that 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:47.440 came before it that was technically called Nokia. But it 0:20:47.520 --> 0:20:50.000 was the founder of the Finnish rubber Works who really 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:52.760 put all these companies together in the first place. He 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:56.679 also divested the company of Nokia's computer division. Finland at 0:20:56.680 --> 0:21:00.320 the time was entering a severe economic recession. It was 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:03.679 essentially a depression that was greater in magnitude than the 0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:06.760 one in the nineteen thirties for Finland, and then the 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:11.359 Soviet Union collapsed, and the Soviets had been Nokia's chief customers. 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:15.320 So things were looking pretty grim for the company. But 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:20.000 the story doesn't end here. I'll tell you how the 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:23.120 story does end. In just a second, but first, let's 0:21:23.119 --> 0:21:33.680 take another quick break to thank our sponsor. During this 0:21:33.760 --> 0:21:38.399 dire economic situation, Nakia released the Nakia ten eleven phone. 0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:40.800 It was one of the earliest phones to have the 0:21:40.880 --> 0:21:44.359 Knackia name, not a Mobira brand, although it was also 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:48.199 called the Mobira Cityman two thousand in some publications. It 0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:51.439 had a battery that allowed for ninety whole minutes of 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:54.040 talk time before needing a recharge, and it could hold 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:57.959 up to contact numbers. It worked on the Global System 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:02.560 for Mobile Communications standard, better known as g s M. 0:22:02.600 --> 0:22:06.320 This eventually became the dominant standard for mobile phones worldwide, 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:10.240 with Code division Multiple Access or c d m A 0:22:10.440 --> 0:22:14.000 being a distant second place. GSM would end up being 0:22:14.040 --> 0:22:17.520 pretty used pretty much everywhere, whereas c d M A 0:22:17.560 --> 0:22:20.760 became a standard found mainly in the United States and Russia, 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:22.320 and in fact even in the US. It was a 0:22:22.359 --> 0:22:25.760 bit confusing because you had some telephone networks working on 0:22:25.840 --> 0:22:29.159 GSM and others working on c d M A. In 0:22:29.280 --> 0:22:35.359 nineteen nine two, Yerma Allila became the new CEO of Nakia. Alilah, 0:22:35.640 --> 0:22:38.879 who had been the head of Nakia's mobile device division, 0:22:39.160 --> 0:22:42.439 decided the future of the company was in telecommunications, and 0:22:42.520 --> 0:22:45.840 so he continued the trend of divesting Nakia of all 0:22:45.960 --> 0:22:51.359 other businesses in order to focus exclusively on telecommunications. Shedding 0:22:51.400 --> 0:22:53.800 those businesses turned out to be the right move, as 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:57.600 Nakia was able to refocus and grow and return to profitability. 0:22:58.200 --> 0:23:02.800 In n Nakia introduced the twenty one line of phones. 0:23:03.280 --> 0:23:06.120 This was the first phone to have the famous Knakia ringtone, 0:23:06.280 --> 0:23:08.680 which goes like this, do do do do Do Do do 0:23:08.520 --> 0:23:12.080 do do do do do do I'm sure you've heard 0:23:12.119 --> 0:23:18.080 it a billion times. That's when it dated from. Two 0:23:18.160 --> 0:23:20.600 years later, in ninety six, the company released a sort 0:23:20.640 --> 0:23:25.040 of proto smartphone called the Nakia nine thousand Communicator. This 0:23:25.320 --> 0:23:29.320 thick handset flipped open to reveal a monochromatic screen and 0:23:29.400 --> 0:23:32.800 a full quarty keyboard, along with a direction pad and 0:23:32.920 --> 0:23:36.080 function keys. You could make calls, you could browse the 0:23:36.119 --> 0:23:40.080 web such as it was back in and even send 0:23:40.080 --> 0:23:44.320 a facts using this phone. The device wasn't a commercial success, 0:23:44.440 --> 0:23:48.880 but found its fair share of devoted fans. Nonetheless, Nakia 0:23:48.960 --> 0:23:52.080 also released a phone called the Knackia eight one ten. 0:23:52.520 --> 0:23:55.119 It featured a cover that would slide down to reveal 0:23:55.160 --> 0:23:57.679 the number pad on the phone, inspiring some people to 0:23:57.720 --> 0:24:00.679 call this the Banana phone. It is featured in a 0:24:00.720 --> 0:24:03.760 little film that came out in nineteen You might have 0:24:03.800 --> 0:24:07.240