Mike Loomis
General Manager of Federal Division, Nokia
Mike Loomis is proud of the work his team is doing to help meet mission success for the public sector, especially for the defense community. 5G could significantly improve public sector communications, which largely relies on proprietary, expensive communications systems designed for voice. When drawing a parallel to the consumer market, the public sector is using communication platforms similar to 3G cellular. One of the top challenges for the public sector is to modernize communications systems and implement broadband that enables the deployment of mission-critical applications.
5G is also bringing capabilities to cellular technology targeted at making deployments possible in enterprise, public sector and defense with features such as security, reliability, low latency and high capacity. Nokia is expecting this to bring very low cost per bit wireless broadband into these markets, opening up a new wave of applications and capabilities in the same way the smart phone and 4G revolutionized the consumer market.
As a global 5G leader, Nokia invests billions globally each year on research and development. The Nokia Federal team leverages the R&D developed for Mobile Network Operators and adapts it to the public sector. This enables Nokia to develop secure, reliable communications solutions in a package consumable for public sector and defense.
Why Watch
The main focus Nokia’s Federal Division is engaging and deploying tactical private wireless systems. The modern tactical environment has increasing demands to collect ISR data, process that data and then distribute the relevant data back to the warfighter. To collect, process and distribute data, a high-capacity wireless broadband network is required. Private 3GPP is suitable for the task.
Nokia Federal recently announced the acquisition of the Fenix Group, the industry leader in tactical private wireless with its Banshee product. Nokia’s mission objective in 2024 is to put high-capacity tactical 3GPP into the hands of the warfighter so they can achieve an information and decision-making advantage. This will help Nokia grow its tactical communications business and continue to innovate in this space.
Nokia aims to leverage its expertise in 5G, cloud and edge computing to create agile and flexible networks that can support multi-domain operations and joint coalition forces.
“I’m personally very excited to contribute to the Mission, by providing a cost effective, secure broadband wireless capability that gives the warfighter an advantage in information collection and processing,” Loomis said.