The Future Of Communications & Connectivity Depends On Storied Tech Pioneers Like Nokia

Can you imagine how we will communicate with each other in 5 years? How about 25 years? How about the next 100 years? The farther you go into the future the more you need to stretch your thinking to even catch a glimpse of what that future could look like.

In a recent visit to the world renown Bell Labs, where the transistor and coding languages like C++ where invited, we had a chance to stretch how we think beyond the next 100 years as Nokia’s new futurist-in-residence. In 2016, Nokia acquired Bell Labs as its global innovation arm and is leveraging this storied institution’s innovative approach and institutional knowledge to effectively reinvent the global infrastructure, creating the networks and systems that will power the future of technology, business, and the human experience. Today, Nokia, as whole, has a renewed and even bolder vision for what’s next. And what’s next will require us to not limit our thinking to just the physical world, but to think physical, virtual and off planet!

The shift from generative AI to the current Agentic AI craze, leading us into the Physical AI future where both AI and computing expand into the physical world requires a bold and prescient vision that rethinks technology, innovation, networks, business and communications in completely new ways.

That’s where we can truly arrive at the reinvent of how we as humans communicate with each other, how we communicate in new ways with machines, robots and new wearables like smartglasses and wearable AI devices, and even new ways that machines and robots will communicate with each other, and companies like Nokia are not sitting back they are learning forward boldy.

The Next Century: Networks That Sense, Think, And Act

Nokia is now focused on the future of networks across cloud and mobile networks, as well as network infrastructure and network solutions. But when we talk about networks, we’re not just talking about faster internet or better cell service. We’re talking about the underlying systems that connect everything: from smartphones and sensors to satellites, factories, autonomous vehicles, and beyond. The focus isn’t just on making those networks faster. It’s about also making them fundamentally smarter. In Nokia’s own words, it’s about creating networks that can sense, think, and act. These next-generation networks don’t just transmit data. They understand context, make decisions, and adapt in real time. They’re becoming the foundational infrastructure for the intelligent, connected world that is needed in the age of AI, quantum, and even space technologies.

Sensing: Making the Invisible Visible

One of the most exciting frontiers being explored is in network-based sensing and it comes in many forms. Nokia is developing radio sensing networks that use ambient signals like electromagnetic waves, temperature, and motion to generate real-time contextual awareness. Imagine a city where landslides, earthquakes, or typhoons are detected before they happen. This isn’t reactive infrastructure. It’s a predictive infrastructure, with the potential to transform how we respond to global risks and turning vulnerability into foresight.

These sensing capabilities also extend into industrial environments. In factories, intelligent networks can act like a sixth sense and can anticipate equipment failure, prevent collisions between machines and people, and continuously optimizing workflows. And then there’s fiber sensing, where the fiber-optic cables themselves become sensors, able to detect pressure, vibration, and even underground movement across large distances. Together, these different types of sensing form a new layer of intelligence across our physical world, reshaping safety, resilience, and responsiveness at scale.

Sensing technologies will revolutionize how machines and humans interact, and dynamically create a sixth sense for the built and physical world.

AI: Intelligence At The Edge

At Nokia, AI is not confined to the cloud. It is embedded into the very fabric of the network, thus making it distributed, adaptive, and capable of continuous learning. This integration transforms the network itself into a dynamic, intelligent foundation for the digital world.

For Nokia’s researchers and engineers, AI is not simply about automation or responsiveness. It is about anticipation. It enables cities to self-optimize, supply chains to reroute in real time, and digital infrastructure to proactively adapt to shifting demands.

This shift from centralized to distributed intelligence marks a fundamental change in how we design and experience connectivity. The focus is no longer just on smarter devices. It’s on building a world that is intelligent by design, and that is context-aware, personalized, and responsive to human needs before they are even articulated.

Quantum Intelligence: Precision, Power, and Possibility

Nokia is advancing quantum technologies across three key domains: sensing, computing, and communications. Among these, quantum sensing is one of the most promising frontiers in their research portfolio. By enabling ultra-high-resolution measurement of physical environments, quantum sensing unlocks new levels of precision and contextual awareness. One application is detailed planetary mapping from orbit that is capable of detecting subsurface water in unexplored terrain. This kind of insight is critical for space exploration, climate monitoring, and global resource planning.

While quantum sensing opens a new dimension of environmental intelligence, Nokia is also making significant strides in quantum computing. Their work on the topological qubit, which is a highly stable and scalable form of quantum information storage and has the potential to reshape the future of computation. In parallel, Nokia is exploring quantum communications that enable ultra-secure, high-speed data transmission, redefining how information can move across space and time.

Taken together, these efforts signal a shift from theory to practical impact. Nokia’s quantum research is moving out of the lab and into the foundational infrastructure of tomorrow, thus paving the way for a more intelligent, secure, and deeply interconnected world.

Space: Networks Beyond Earth

Recently Nokia deployed and built the first network on the Moon, in partnership with NASA, extending their legacy in telecommunications beyond our planet. They are laying the groundwork for human presence beyond Earth. In addition to cellular communication on the moon, researchers are also exploring technologies that provide connectivity for Earth to the moon and the planets beyond. These space communications networks will enable astronauts to communicate, control rovers, and transmit data back to Earth in real-time, thus allowing humans to expand beyond the confines of Earth and into space, the moon and potentially into deep space.

They are expanding space tech and the edge of our digital footprint into orbit and beyond. As the space economy takes shape, Nokia’s networks will surely be a critical backbone of human and robotic exploration.

A New Era of Innovation

Standing at the intersection of history, frontier technologies and a new horizon, as a tech futurist I have a front-row seat to how storied tech pioneers like Nokia are actively in the trenches building the systems that will define how we live, work, explore, and connect for generations to come. In the next 15 years we could possibly see a majority of network traffic being machine-to-machine communications and interactions. We might see quantum sensors reshaping how we plan cities, detect natural disasters, and explore new planets. Or what if the first network on the Moon becomes the catalyst and the springboard to finally reaching Mars and having off planet human settlements?

See, innovation is all about turning bold ideas into a reality that can have global impact and while newcomers might be getting headlines, powering the future depends more than ever on pioneers like Nokia. From the transistor to tomorrow’s intelligent networks, topological qubits all the way to the first networks on the moon, the story has always been about pushing boundaries.

Today, as we step into a new era of sensing, AI, quantum, spatial computing, robotics, and space technologies, the pace of change may make a single year feel like a decade. But for companies that are reinventing our global communications and connectivity infrastructure, like Nokia, the focus remains firmly on the long game. The focus is on innovating not just for today, but for the next 100 years.