- Uitto became president of mobile networks in late 2018
- He has seen and overseen multiple ups and downs at the vendor over the last 7 years
- On his watch: Open RAN, mid-band for 5G, the rise of AI and more
Nokia’s president of mobile networks, Tommi Uitto, is leaving the Nordic telecom vendor after 30 years of service.
“What a journey!” Uitto posted on LinkedIn in his public farewell. “Lots of high speeds and dangerous curves like we say at Nokia.”
Uitto was promoted to the president of mobile networks in November 2018. This means he has been at the head of the department for all of the commercial deployment of 5G networks worldwide so far.
Over that time, Uitto has seen the waxing and waning fortunes of Open RAN, the move to mid-band for 5G and the rise of AI for radios and more! He has been involved in disputes about radio cooling technology and gotten compliments about AirScale.
He presided over the unit during both good and bad years for Nokia as a whole. Particularly, there have been some dramatic moments for the network group. From AT&T ditching Nokia for Ericsson in December 2023, to Jio using both vendors to roll out nationwide 5G standalone in India.
“Tens of millions of Nokia radio units - and many more radio transceivers - have been delivered, installed, and even refreshed multiple times for well over 300, close to 400 operators,” Uitto said on LinkedIn.
We'll be watching to see what's next for him.