The Finnish company Nokia is considering opening an R&D center in Ukraine

The Finnish company Nokia planned to open an R&D center for software development in Ukraine before the Great War. Now the telecom equipment manufacturer is returning to the idea of ​​implementing the plan. Yevhen Balichev, CEO of Nokia Solutions & Networks Ukraine, told Forbes about this, writes dev.ua.

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Nokia has been on the Ukrainian market since 2006. In 2020, it started producing components for the 5G network at the facilities of the American Jabil near Uzhgorod, but stopped production after February 24, 2022.

Despite the lack of production, Nokia's business in Ukraine has even expanded. The turnover is almost UAH 298 million, which is the highest figure since 2019. The entire amount was brought only by customer support. The Finnish company also works with Kyivstar, lifecell and Vodafone.

Currently, Nokia employs about 170 people in Ukraine.

The company is discussing the possibility of suspending plans to open R&D in Ukraine to develop software for base stations or mobile operators, says Balichev.

Investments in creating R&D for software development are hundreds of thousands of dollars, says Oleksandr Glushchenko, a former member of the board of INSAU. The final amount will be affected by the need to purchase equipment and the number of people in development.

R&D is launched by Nokia's global office. According to Balychev, there is a risk that the company will not dare to take such a step while the active phase of the war with Russia continues. "There's always the question of when the war will end," he adds.

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