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New Acquisition in Tech Industry Delivers Key Results

Officials collaborate to provide warfighters with “flexible-band, agile, private tactical networks.”

Dave Peterson, vice president of tactical and business development for Nokia, introduces the new flexible-band, agile, private tactical network that assists warfighter communications.

Fresh off a new partnership, innovators at Nokia Federal Solutions and the Fenix Group are already developing products that are benefiting soldiers around the world.

Specifically, crews have turned the “flexible-band, agile, private tactical networks” concept into a reality. This design is an expansion of the Banshee tactical networks that better meets the needs of government, according to Dave Peterson, vice president of tactical and business development for Nokia and founder and former CEO of the Fenix Group.

The flexible-band, agile, private tactical network provides warfighters with a more convenient communication option. Soldiers can now pack up this system and take it with them anywhere in the world. Peterson explained this process during an interview that took place as part of SIGNAL Media’s Executive Video Series.

“Our primary focus with Nokia on product development has been the ability to utilize any 4G or 5G band in the world in pairings,” Peterson said. “So, I can take a 4G band and a 5G band utilized in Europe, and I can use that on a training range in Texas and not have to worry about interfering with a CSP [communications service provider]. When I travel abroad, all I have to do is swap a module; I don’t have to buy a new system. All I need to do is hot swap a card in the new product, and now I’m on brand-new bands. I can do two 4G bands; I can do two 5G bands. It’s really up to the use case and the commander on the ground.”

Additionally, the system is easy to learn and use. Even 19-year-olds can turn on and use the program without any help, and it only takes them a couple of days to learn.

“We’re never going to teach a soldier how to become a 5G RAN [radio access network] engineer, but we can teach them how to utilize it in a combat environment, even in a denied environment, effectively and safely as an overmatch tool,” Peterson said.

One problem that crews have historically run into related to cellular frequencies is the spectrum, and this new idea of band agility helps the military circumvent this issue.

“If the Army is going to run an exercise in Texas, for instance, they want to make sure that they are not stepping on AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile when they turn on their private cellular systems,” Peterson explained. “Or, maybe they are cooperating with the CSPs and are working with and through those CSPs, so those are two different ways of working.”

Nokia acquired the Fenix Group in May 2024, according to Nokia officials. With Nokia’s knowledge of the 5G industry and the Fenix Group’s tactical communications specialization, this acquisition has the potential to help the federal government and, specifically, the U.S. Department of Defense in several ways. Within the first year, it has already proven to be beneficial.

“The joint product development that we’ve been doing for the past six months or so, we debuted at TechNet Augusta [last year], and it is something that we never could have done alone, and I don’t think Nokia could have done without us,” Peterson said. “So, from a technical marriage standpoint of this acquisition, we’re having some success there. What we’ve been able to do is take our original design ideas on products, on the Banshee tactical networks that we created here, and expand that to a much more capable system that meets the needs of government.”