“India will play an important role”

Price leadership is what Nokia wants to focus on now. That will be the mantra to expand telecom net
works in emerging economies as well as keep industry leadership position. Jorma Ollila, chairman and CEO of Nokia Corporation, shares his vision.

You have been talking quite a bit about enhancing telecom access to people in rural and emerging economies. What is the opportunity there?

Building communications coverage in rural areas is of fundamental importance in the emerging economies like China, India, Philippines, Indonesia, and many bother countries. 

Here we have an opportunity to make a paradigm shift and extend communications to a larger part of the world population. We are encouraging the regulators to make sure that the operators provide wider coverage. We want more and more people to get these services so that tariffs go down. That in turn makes more users come in. It will turn into a spiral that will be a virtuous circle. In all this obviously the regulator has a role, the global operators have a role, and we have a role. 

What would be the role of Nokia and other equipment and handset vendors in this?

Our role is two fold. One is to make network products, which are optimized for voice use, and also cost-optimised. Systems that will be best suited for making phone calls and text messages for rural areas. The second is to ensure that we get attractive good entry-level products that are affordable by masses. It is our management goal that we should become cost leaders.

When there are other bigger issues such as food, hygiene, water, health facing people in the these emerging economies, why do feel that telecom is so critical?

Being connected is a human need, which increases quality of life. On the macro-economic front, you will see that you can co-relate communications level of a country with how it is doing economically. Investment into communications, and development of communications including in rural areas, is the driver for economic development.

Since price is now going to be a major concern, will it mean more development work out of countries like India?

India is very strong on software, but not so strong on embedded, which is what you need for handsets. But overall, it is clear that countries like India and China will play an increasingly important role.

Ibrahim Ahmad