Nokia acquires Unium to boost home Wi-Fi portfolio

Nokia is acquiring Unium, a US-based software company that specializes in solving complex wireless networking problems for use in mission-critical and residential Wi-Fi applications.

The Finnish tech giant plans to integrate Unium’s software into its “end-to-end, whole-home WiFi solution.” The acquisition is part of the company’s new expanded WiFi offering. Nokia has more than 47 million “home gateways installed worldwide.”

Unium and Nokia’s focus will be to extend gigabit networks within the home, beyond the deals that Nokia already has in areas like community and rural broadband, and fiber to the home, and more specifically with its home gateway solutions, which has announced an extended portfolio of mesh WiFi gateways and beacons, new software to upgrade gateways, and new software for service providers and customers to monitor and optimise solutions.

“The Unium team is excited to join Nokia and drive a unique and innovative customer experience through our intelligent Wi-Fi solution, making every customer-touch better,” said Martha Bejar, CEO at Unium, in a statement.

Unium was founded in 2002 and is a privately held company located in Seattle, Washington. The planned transaction is expected to close in Q1 2018, subject to customary closing conditions.

"Today's Wi-Fi solutions still have serious issues with sticky clients, interference, coverage gaps and capacity issues. With Unium inside, our Nokia Wi-Fi solution will deliver an unmatched user experience, going beyond what standard mesh Wi-Fi solutions deliver today," said Federico Guillén, president of Nokia's Fixed Networks business group.

Unium’s previous customers include Google Fiber, one of Alphabet’s high-speed internet efforts, and — earlier — the Department of Defense and Nokia has declined to comment on what happens with Unium’s existing contracts.