What Is Nokia Doing Now? A Buyer's Guide to the New Nokia Routers

I Thought I Knew Nokia. I Was Wrong.

When I first started managing procurement for our company back in 2020, I assumed Nokia was a phone company. That's what I grew up with. In 1997, my Nokia 3110 was the most indestructible object I owned—I dropped it so many times and it just kept working. When you say "Nokia" to anyone over 35, they do the little hand squeeze from the 3310 ads, even though in '97 it was all about the 3110 and the 8110.

So when the words "Nokia router" crossed my desk, I pictured—I don't know—some kind of brick with antenna ports? Actually, no. I pictured a giant phone-shaped box. I was very, very wrong.

The person who set me straight was Reid, our network admin back then. If you've Googled "who is Reid" looking for answers—probably a different Reid. But in my story, Reid is the guy who stopped our company from making a genuinely bad equipment purchase.

What is Reid doing now? He left us in late 2023 to join a managed service provider. He runs service delivery for a regional ISP. I still email him vendor quotes, and he still replies with: "Read this before you buy that."

I should mention, I report to both operations and finance, so I'm accountable from both directions when a purchase goes sideways. That might be why I've developed a bias toward reliability. It's also why I pay attention to specific dates and numbers.

Nokia 1997 vs. Nuevo Nokia: Same Name, Different Company

Nokia in 1997 was the undisputed king of mobile phones. The 3110, the 9000 Communicator, the slide-activated 8110 (which later starred in The Matrix)—these were iconic pieces of hardware. If you thought "brick that never breaks," you thought Nokia.

The "nuevo Nokia" is a different animal entirely. Nokia sold its devices business to Microsoft in 2014, then acquired Alcatel-Lucent in 2016 and became a full network infrastructure company. Today, they build 5G radios, IP routing platforms, optical transport, and automation software for service providers. The phones you see in stores are made under license by HMD Global; the real Nokia doesn't earn its money from phones anymore.

So when people search for "nokia router" and get both a $40 gadget on Amazon and a $40,000 carrier-grade router on Nokia's official website (nokia.com/networks), those are completely different conversations. Same brand name. Nothing else in common.

The question "is new Nokia worth buying" doesn't have one answer. It depends on which scenario you're in. After 5 years of managing IT procurement, I've seen three distinct ones.

Scenario A: You Just Want the Office Wi-Fi to Work

If you're in a 10-to-30-person office and you're searching "nokia" because you remember the indestructible brick—stop. You should not be buying Nokia routers directly. That's a bit counterintuitive, I know. Let me explain.

A router is one component in a larger system. You need someone to configure it, secure it, maintain it, and fix it at 2 AM when the network drops during the CEO's demo. That's not hardware. That's a service outcome. For a small company, the best way to get that outcome is through a managed service provider, not a hardware catalog.

In 2022, our small office provider left us with a 6-hour outage because their agreement was "best effort." No SLA, no penalty, no urgency. The most frustrating part? The salesperson who sold us the deal later admitted they never promised a response time. You'd think business-grade internet would include a guarantee, but apparently not.

We switched in 2023. The new provider costs about $300 more per month—I'm paying for a 4-hour response SLA and uptime credits. I haven't had to call them once, but knowing I can is worth every dollar. For a small operation, one outage during a client call is way more expensive.

If you're in this scenario, you're gonna want to compare SLAs, not specifications. The hardware is secondary.

Scenario B: You're Connecting Multiple Locations

If you have two or three offices, or a warehouse plus headquarters, you're in a different game. This is where the new Nokia's enterprise-grade hardware starts making sense. Their business routing platforms are genuinely excellent. But you probably won't buy direct—you'll go through a systems integrator or ISP that provisions enterprise services on Nokia gear.

In our 2024 vendor consolidation project, we supported 400 employees across 3 locations. We looked at Nokia's enterprise IP routing options. Technically impressive. The challenge was delivery certainty.

Here's the story that changed how I buy:

In March 2024, we needed to connect a new warehouse before a $15,000 client onboarding event. That date couldn't move. Vendor A quoted $2,000 less, with "2–4 weeks, depending on stock." Vendor B quoted $2,400 more, guaranteed delivery in 6 business days, installed and tested.

I chose Vendor B. My boss asked why I was overpaying. I asked him what he thought a missed $15,000 event would cost—not just in money, but in trust with our biggest client. He didn't argue after that.

The $2,400 premium wasn't for speed. It was for certainty. "Probably on time" is not a contract. When a deadline is tied to client money, a 5% price difference is noise.

It took me three years and roughly 150 procurement requests to fully understand this. Maybe closer to 180, I'd have to check our purchasing system. Every time I chose the cheaper option with a vague promise, I paid in stress if not in actual dollars.

Scenario C: You're Buying Carrier-Grade Infrastructure

If you're purchasing carrier-grade infrastructure—5G transport, IP/optical backbone, service provider routing—the new Nokia is a first-tier player. Their 7750 SR series, FP routing chipsets, and optical platforms are deployed by major ISPs globally. According to Nokia's official product documentation (nokia.com/networks), these are built for multi-service edge and core routing at scale.

At this level, your decision criteria are different. You're looking at multi-year lifecycle commitments, substantial support contracts, hardware that runs for a decade. Same principle applies: when delayed deployment carries penalties or revenue losses that dwarf the equipment cost, expedite fees are rounding errors.

I've said it many times, and I'll say it again: uncertain and cheap is more expensive than certain and premium.

How Do You Know Which Scenario You're In?

Here's the framework I use now:

• How many people depend on this network? Under 30 → Scenario A. 30 to 300 → Scenario B. Above that—or external customer-facing—Scenario C.
• What does one hour of downtime cost? Go calculate it with finance. This single number tells you how much certainty you can justify.
• Are you buying a device or a guaranteed outcome? If you said "a box," you're buying a future incident.
• Who has to explain the failure? If it's you, add a certainty premium to the budget. Future you will appreciate it.

In our case, one hour of downtime on the warehouse network costs roughly $4,000 in delayed shipments. That makes a lot of decisions simple.

Bottom Line: What Is Nokia Doing Now, and What Should You Do?

Nokia in 2025 is doing what it's always done best: building things that don't break. It's just that those things are now 5G networks and IP routers, not pocket bricks. If you're in Scenario B or C, the nuevo Nokia is worth serious consideration. If you're in Scenario A, the best purchase you can make is a service guarantee, not a router.

Who is Reid? He's the network admin who taught me to buy outcomes instead of boxes. What is Reid doing now? He runs service delivery for an ISP. He's on the other side of the SLA table now. I like that symmetry.

My advice: figure out your scenario, calculate the cost of being wrong, and let certainty be part of the price you're willing to pay. It will cost a little more on paper. It will cost much less in reality.

Pricing referenced above is from vendor quotes received in March 2024; verify current rates before ordering.