Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, in the Helsinki metropolitan area,[3] but the company's actual roots are in the Tampere region of Pirkanmaa.

It was founded as a pulp mill and had long been associated with rubber and cables, but since the 1990s has focused on large-scale telecommunications infrastructure, technology development, and licensing.

[18] After the sale, Nokia began to focus more on its telecommunications infrastructure business and on Internet of things technologies, marked by the divestiture of its Here mapping division and the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent, including its Bell Labs research organization.

[28][29]60°13′30″N 24°45′22″E / 60.225°N 24.756°E / 60.225; 24.756 Nokia's history dates from 1865, when mining engineer Fredrik Idestam established a pulp mill on the shores of the Tammerkoski rapids near the town of Tampere, Finland (then a Grand Duchy under Russian Empire's rule).

In 1922, in the now independent Finland, Nokia Ab entered into a partnership with the Finnish Rubber Works and Kaapelitehdas (the Cable Factory), all now jointly under the leadership of Polón.

It soon widened trade, ranging from automatic telephone exchanges to robotics among others; by the late 1970s, the Soviet Union became a major market for Nokia, yielding high profits.

At that time, the company had no interest in producing mobile phones, which the executive board regarded as akin to James Bond's gadgets: improbably futuristic and niche devices.

Finland was now also experiencing its worst recession in living memory, and the collapse of the Soviet Union, a major customer, made matters worse.

Elop stated that Nokia chose not to use Android because of an apparent inability to "differentiate" its offerings, with critics also noting that his past ties to Microsoft may have also influenced the decision.

[101][102] CEO Elop announced cost-cutting measures in June by shedding 10,000 employees by the end of the year and the closure of the Salo manufacturing plant.

[109] On 1 August 2011, Nokia announced that it would adopt a new three-digit naming system for mobile phone products and stop using letters, effectively ending the Nseries, Eseries, and short-lived Cseries.

[118][117] Analysts believe that Ballmer pushed for the buyout because of fears that Nokia was close to adopting Android and abandoning their alliance with Microsoft.

[121][122] Others, including Ballmer's successor Satya Nadella, felt that Microsoft thought merging their software teams with Nokia's hardware engineering and designs would "accelerate" growth of Windows Phone.

At the time, Ballmer himself was retiring as Microsoft CEO and was replaced by Satya Nadella, who opposed the Nokia mobile phones purchase, along with chairman Bill Gates.

[136] During Nokia's financial struggles, its profitable networking division with Siemens provided much of its income; thus, the purchase proved to be positive, particularly after the sale of its mobile devices unit.

[12] Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri stated that the company planned to re-enter the mobile phone business in this manner in 2016, following the expiration of its non-compete clause with Microsoft.

[146] Nokia's press release stated that OZO would be "the first in a planned portfolio of digital media solutions," with more technological products expected in the future.

[153][154] The acquisition created a stronger competitor to the rival firms Ericsson and Huawei,[155] whom Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent had surpassed in terms of total combined revenue in 2014.

On 3 August 2015, Nokia announced that it had reached a deal to sell its Here digital maps division to a consortium of BMW, Daimler AG and Volkswagen Group for €2.8 billion.

Nokia subsequently entered into a long-term licensing deal to make HMD the exclusive manufacturer of Nokia-branded phones and tablets outside Japan, operating in conjunction with Foxconn.

[173] In January 2018, Nokia signed a deal with NTT Docomo, Japan's largest mobile operator, to provide 5G wireless radio base stations in the country by 2020.

[178] A 2019 study revealed that Nokia phones performed far better than rivals Samsung, LG, Xiaomi, and Huawei in updating to the latest version of Android.

The study, made by Counterpoint Research, found that 96 percent of Nokia phones were either sent with or updated to the latest Android version since Pie was released in 2018.

In June, Nokia won a 5G contract worth approximately $450 million[182] from Taiwan Mobile to build out the telecom operator's next-generation network as the sole supplier.

[8] Nokia has played a very large role in the economy of Finland,[197][198] and it is an important employer in the country, working with multiple local partners and subcontractors.

[208] In July 2015, Nokia Technologies introduced a VR camera called OZO, designed for professional content creators and developed in Tampere, Finland.

[258] Due to the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent in 2015, Nokia listed its shares again on the Paris Stock Exchange and was included in the CAC 40 index on 6 January 2016[259] but later removed on 18 September 2017.

[274] The technology reportedly allowed Iran to use deep packet inspection to read and change the content of emails, social media, and online phone calls.

[286] Nokia brand owner HMD Global denied any such transfers had taken place, stating that it was instead the result of an error in the packing process of the phone's software.

"[288] In 2020, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute accused at least 82 major brands, including Nokia, of being connected to forced Uyghur labor in Xinjiang.