Thirty years on from the call that transformed how we communicate
The first official GSM call between former Finnish Prime Minister Harri Holkeri and Deputy Mayor of Tampere Kaarina Suonio, on July 1, 1991, lasted just over three minutes.
My colleagues said I looked like a zombie and nicknamed me “Chief Worrier” as we worked around the clock in the frantic run-up to the phone call that transformed telecommunications and made Nokia a global brand.
When I joined Nokia in 1990, the mission to make the first commercial call on the new European standard for digital cellular networks, GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), what we now refer to as 2G, was already well underway.
My role as account manager for Radiolinja, the Finnish GSM network operator and customer for Nokia’s GSM technology, put me in the front line of what was a Europe-wide race.
Our products and software were still being developed. Radiolinja (now Elisa) were still waiting for their operator license to be approved.
