Nokia

Nokia is a small city (pop. 34,000 in 2020) on the banks of the Nokianvirta (Kokemäenjoki) River in Western Finland, some 15 km to the west of Tampere.

Understand


Nokia has been around long enough that even its name is obscure. The most probable theory is that it comes from Old Finnish nois (pl. nokia), meaning a type of dark-coated marten found in the area to this day, and the animal is thus enshrined on the Nokia coat of arms. In modern Finnish, on the other hand, noki means "soot" and nokia would mean "soots", but using the plural makes little sense in either language.

Nokia was the setting of one of the largest battles in the Club War, a 1596 peasant uprising against feudal lords. The peasants, armed with clubs (surprise!), took up residence in Nokia Manor and won several skirmishes against the feudal cavalry, but were decisively defeated (surprise again!) by Klaus Fleming in January 1597. Thousands of clubmen were slain and their fled leader, Jaakko Ilkka, was captured a few weeks later and executed. The Club War was the last major peasant revolt in Finland, and it permanently consolidated the hold of the nation state. Much later, in the Finnish Civil War (1918), Nokia (along with neighbouring Tampere) was a Communist stronghold and saw some combat.

But Nokia started on its road to world domination in 1865, when Fredrik Idestam established a pulp mill in Nokia and started manufacturing paper. The factory prospered and a town started to develop around it, replacing what had previously been just farmlands. In 1898, Nokia spawned the Finnish Rubber Works, which manufactured galoshes and later also tires. And for a long time this is what Nokia was known for in Finland: in almost every Finnish home you can still find a pair or two of long black rubber boots, emblazoned with exactly the same "NOKIA" logo as found on Nokia's cellphones.

The first step on the road to telecommunications was taken when the Finnish Cable Works were opened in 1912 in Helsinki. Its 1967 merger with the Rubber Works resulted in the creation of the Nokia Group, by then a vast industrial conglomerate for rubber, cable, paper and electronics products. Combining most of these skills, during the 1970s Nokia developed the DX 200 digital telephone switch and the revenue share of the electronics department started to balloon.

The die was cast in May 1992, when newly elected CEO Jorma Ollila decided to concentrate solely on telecommunications. The rubber, paper and consumer electronics operations were spun off into their own companies (all with names of the form "Nokian X"), but the telecoms group retained the name Nokia for itself. The rest is history – but Nokia the company no longer has any offices in Nokia the town.

Get in


Local buses which are part of Tampere local transport Nysse network connect Nokia centre to Tampere centre every 30 minutes. You can get to Nokia also with train, which takes about 15 minutes from Tampere, but the trains pass only a few times in a day.

There are direct train and coach connections from Helsinki and Pori to Nokia. Train connections are provided by VR. Timetables for coach connections can be found at Matkahuolto.

Get around

 * See Tampere for information about fares and tickets

The Nysse route planner is useful for getting around by bus in Nokia. Bus connections are quite limited outside the center of Nokia.

By electric kick scooter
German Tier rents electric kick scooters for use in the centre. The companies aim to keep the scooters available also in winter, conditions permitting, but the vehicles are not ideal in snowy or slippery conditions.

By taxi

 * Menevä, iTaksi: see Tampere
 * Smartphone apps: Valopilkku, 02 Taksi

See


If you're looking for Nokia the company you're in the wrong place, as only one of Nokia's buildings remains in Nokia: a mansion which is used mostly for recreational purposes for the company staff. The headquarters were moved to Helsinki/Espoo, with most other operations in Salo, Tampere and Oulu.

However, old Nokia factories in the factory island (Tehtaansaari) and banks of Nokianvirta close to town centre are worth a visit. From the Nokianvirta bridge a view to the factories is what Nokia is all about. Also Nokia church designed by C.L. Engel is quite nice.

Eat
Nokia is a small town, so the selection of restaurants is limited. You don't have to go hungry in Nokia, however. There is a selection of fast food restaurants, a Chinese eatery and a steakhouse.

Go next

 * Pirkkala