Nokia was founded in 1865 by Fredrik Idestam in Finland as a paper manufacturing company. In 1920, Finnish Rubber Works became a part of the company, and later on in 1922, Finnish Cable Works joined them. All the three companies were merged in 1967 to form the Nokia Group.

In the late 1970s, Nokia started taking an active interest in the power and electronics businesses and by 1987, consumer electronics became Nokia's major business. Nokia created the NMT mobile phone standard in 1981 and launched the first NMT phone, Mobira Cityman, in 1987. The company delivered the first GSM network to Radkilinia, a Finnish company in 1991, and in 1992, Nokia 1011 - a precursor for all Nokia's current GSM phones - was introduced.

Nokia entered the Indian market in 1994. The first ever GSM call in India was made on a Nokia 2110 mobile phone on its own network in 1995. When Nokia entered India, the telecom policies were not conducive to the growth of the mobile phone industry.

The tariffs levied on importing mobile phones were as high as 27%, usage charges were at Rs.16 per minute and, at these high rates, consumers did not take to mobile phones. Nokia also had to face tough competition from other powerful global players like Motorola, Sony, Siemens and Ericsson...