Feb 11, 2017 09:32 AM EST By Dan Archer, UniversityHerald Reporter

Nokia this week announced the acquisition of Finland-based telecom software company Comptel to build a standalone software business, as part of the company's big push into software business as network equipment sales sputter.

Nokia Acquires Comptel

According to TechCrunch, the former global handset leader Nokia is buying the Helsinki-based telecommunications software maker Comptel in a cash deal worth $371 million. The goal is to acquire the technology that will help phone carriers manage their networks. The deal is part of the company's ongoing effort to build a strong software presence in the market.

The Helsinki-based Comptel brings critical solutions in key areas within Nokia's business. These include the catalogue-driven service orchestration, intelligent data processing, customer engagement, and agile service monetization. 

The acquisition will also give Nokia the ability to help process and analyze data traveling in carriers' networks, the company's first big step in building its own software business. Reports said that the new business unit will focus on enterprise software and platforms for Internet-of-Things.

Founded in 1986 and based in Helsinki, Finland, Comptel develops software for Operations Support Systems (OSS), which are commonly used by telecom companies to help manage and configure their networks. The Finish company is actually a public company, trading on the Helsinki Nasdaq OMX and counts 800 employees in more than 30 countries.

Nokia Plans For Comptel

As mentioned earlier by Fortune, Nokia is sticking to its vision of becoming a top seller of software and infrastructure networking equipment to mobile carriers, leaving its core hardware business behind it.

The company said that it plans to combine Comptel's resources with the company's own OSS offering, analytics portfolio and cloud resources to be able to come out with an end-to-end orchestration of complex NFV and SDN deployments, thus providing its customers with a whole new kind of automation.

In addition to the newly acquired telecom resources, Comptel will also bring a wide breadth of global telco companies on board. These include BT, T-Mobile, Orange, Indosat, and Chorus.

Since its exit from the highly competitive mobile phone market a few years ago, Nokia has decided to focus only on two fronts. One front leans toward consumer-focused products, while the other takes on the broadband network infrastructure business.

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