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Written by James Bounre

When Nokia debuted its Nokia Drone Networks offering in May 2023, the company was in the midst of a revamp. The Finnish giant was busy telling everyone else what many insiders and industry observers already knew; that it was now a B2B technology innovation leader first and foremost.  

Nokia Drone Networks was an archetypal example of this innovation. The company was the first to offer a turnkey, fully automated, 4G/LTE or 5G-connected drone-in-a-box unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) solution for industrial and public safety use cases. Belgium, thanks to a partnership with operator Citymesh, became home to the world’s first nationwide drone network, capturing and dispatching real-time aerial footage to better equip emergency services when responding to calls. 

Two years on, and it is clear that this first-mover advantage had paid off. When PROACTIF, a group of 42 leading European technology companies supporting the autonomy of Europe’s drone and robotics industry with an anticipated €90 million (£78.1m) in revenue was launched, Nokia was chosen to lead the consortium.   

Thomas Eder is Head of Embedded Wireless Solutions at Nokia Cloud and Network Services. While he still calls himself a ‘radio guy’ – the first half of his 17-year tenure at Nokia was around mobile networks – Eder subsequently moved into managing ‘innovation projects’. This led into being program lead for Nokia Saving Lives, a non-profit initiative which demonstrates how cutting-edge technology can support emergency teams during disasters. From that came Nokia Drone Networks, which Eder helped design.. 

“We were really on the leap of jumping out of the pure telco play, and this drones story went from an innovation project, into corporate strategy, into building a dedicated business within Nokia, and as of today, [an] extremely successful, growing business within Nokia,” explains Eder. 

Yet the wireless and networking heart still beats. Underpinning the hardware is Nokia’s leadership in private wireless. Omdia’s 2025 Private 5G Market Radar report, published in May, puts Nokia on its own at the top, noting its ‘comprehensive and forward-looking approach to industrial connectivity’. “The anchor point of the transition of Nokia going into B2B – the actual platform – was to use the connectivity technology we already do today for building private 4G, 5G networks for the manufacturing industry to move out of the weak points of Wi-Fi, to be able to provide connectivity platforms with small private wireless networks for enterprises,” says Eder. 

For real-world use cases, however, the drones also need to integrate with public networks. Eder gives an example of the drone-in-a-box being installed at a port. The drone can connect to the port’s private wireless network and conduct tasks assigned to the port authority, such as monitoring loading and unloading of container ships and identifying e.g. oil spills, yet can also react to first responder emergencies and liaise with, for example, a nearby fire station. 

Eder speaks of the necessity of drone infrastructure, much in the same way that electric cars have charging stations. “In the same way, we will see in the next three to five years in number of countries, drone-in-a-box systems that are deployed around parks, around harbours and around urban environments for all kinds of services,” he says. Citymesh can therefore be just the beginning. 

Yet Eder notes the industry struggled to keep up with the pace of change for drones, from hobbyist application to what he calls a ‘daily industrial helper’. “There is still a lot of geographical dependency on China, there is still a lack of industrialisation to a large extent in the drones industry,” notes Eder. “And this [maturation] and industrialisation of the drone industry is something which I also really see as part of my mission as a Nokia representative. 

“If we all pull on the same string within that industry, I’m very confident that the regulators will gain more confidence and that the adoption will explode in the next 24 to 36 months.” 

PROACTIF, therefore, could not have come at a sooner time. The goal, as Nokia sees it, is to ‘redefine how emergency situations and critical infrastructure are managed in Europe. Academia, SMEs and industry will come together to solve the problems of interoperability, autonomy, and rapid deployment.  

Eder sees it as a ‘one plus one plus one’ equation. The first part relates to the aforementioned lack of industrialisation; the second is ensuring a rising tide lifts all boats for the less digitally literate corners of Europe; and the third is the recent agreement from NATO to move defence spending to 5% of countries’ economic output. “If we want this ‘one plus one plus one’, there is a huge need and huge potential benefit for Europe,” says Eder. “We are building an ecosystem that helps us with sensor supplies within Europe, and chip supplies, and silicon supplies, and the right skills in Europe.” 

Building out a viable ecosystem is one of the key elements which will bring stakeholders together at Microelectronics UK, on September 24-25. Eder is speaking at the event around connected drones for urban planning, and he sees his mission as to educate attendees about the need to increase the acceptance of drones – as well as help understand the future roadmaps to industrialise the ecosystem. 

“I think the most important thing is that people start understanding that our modern tomorrow is today,” he says. “If we look outside of Europe, we see countries that are allowing autonomous cars, autonomous drones already, and whenever we start planning a new industry compass, or whenever we start planning a new district, or the modernisation of our urban infrastructure, we should keep in mind that we will not be able to neglect drones in that type of planning.”