Nokia: Nokia Bell Labs Shooting for the Moon, Coming to New Brunswick

NEW PROVIDENCE/NEW BRUNSWICK - Astronauts flitting around on the moon will one day be able to hold conversations, send texts and probably watch cat videos if they so desire, thanks to the Nokia Bell Labs' latest technological innovation. Employees gathered at the company's Union County campus earlier this month for launch and landing viewing parties as the IM-2 mission carried the world's first lunar 4G network - in advance of NASA's Artemis III mission in 2027. Apparently, we're not far off from science fiction becoming reality, with the United States, China and maybe a few other countries sending crews to the moon to mine its resources. Things went a little sideways when Athena tipped over upon touchdown. The Intuitive Machines' lander that was carrying Nokia Bell Labs' tech had to be hastily recalled to Earth. For 25 minutes, though, all 4G network system components were fully functional. "Even though it was not completely successful, we were able to turn our network on and demonstrate we have an operational cellular network on the moon," said Thierry Klein, President, Bell Labs Solutions Research. Nokia Bell Labs continues to shoot for the moon as it gears up to move about 1,000 employees to New Brunswick. Klein, in an interview Thursday with TAPinto New Brunswick, said ground will be broken on the company's 11-story building across from the New Brunswick Train Station by the end of the year. Employees will start moving in by late 2027. The company's plan is to be all moved-in by the end of 2028. H-2, as the building has been dubbed, represents the second phase of the three-stage Health & Life Science Exchange (HELIX) project - the most ambitious development project in the city's history. Whether the AI team is going to move in before the quantum physics team or after the sensing technology crew - that's still being worked out. So is who is going on what floor. So far, though, it seems Nokia Bell Labs' employees are generally excited about having new digs and are looking forward to wandering downtown for lunch at Taka Taka or Filippo's Famous Pizza, dinner at Catherine Lombardi or Jasmine's or a show at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center or the Stress Factory. "It's been more positively received than we expected," said Peter Vetter, the president of Bell Labs Core Research. "People are excited about having a new lab facility. We also looked at the demographics and where people live. It's actually better compared to where we are here because this building is a migration from other Bell Labs buildings that have been closed - most from Holmdel. So, actually going farther south is a benefit." Said Klein, "When we announced that we were going to New Brunswick, I got a message from a person saying, 'You could not have picked a better location. I'm a 5-minute walk away from it.' " Klein and Vetter, of course, are eager to mine Rutgers' biggest and brightest minds. Even Princeton and its brainy students are just a short ride down Route 1. Beyond that, though, Klein and Vetter have a vision of connecting with the city's middle and high school students. After all, there are boys and girls organizations coming through the campus all the time, and scientists at Nokia Bell Labs hosted local girl scouts one Saturday last year. You could almost imagine a perfect fit between Nokia Bell Labs' researchers and the STEM-minded students in the district's Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH) program. "We believe that we need to reach out to the high and middle school, and just generally, our ambition is to get more kids in general, but also young girls, young women, excited about STEM and technology," Klein said. "And so, in particular with the view of the opportunities that STEM careers provide, we want to make sure the kids stay interested in STEM technologies. "We have programs right now in each of our locations, but particularly in New Jersey, where we host high school kids," he added. "We host middle school kids. We encourage our researchers to go to the local schools if they have an opportunity, and we support them with material, collateral material, but also games that they want to take to the kids that depend a little bit on the grade that they approach." When the question turns to why should the average person living on French Street or Fernwood Court be excited that Nokia Bell Labs will soon be calling New Brunswick home, the answer goes back to the mission of the company and the technological wonders it has brought to the world. Nokia Bell Labs, Nokia's industrial research arm behind the invention of the transistor, the solar cell, the laser and other modern marvels, is celebrating its centennial in 2025, marking 100 years of groundbreaking discoveries and innovations that blazed the trail for the digital age and pushed the boundaries of what's possible. Elton John, Viola Davis and Helen Hayes may belong to the exclusive EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony awards) club, but Nokia Bell Labs is probably the only member of the EGONT (three Emmys, two Grammys, one Oscar, 10 Nobel Prizes and five Turing Awards). Vetter is fond of picking up his cell phone and pointing out there are at least 10 Nokia Bell Labs technologies at play each time you make a call. Right now, 6G technology is on Vetter and Klein's radar screen (yeah, they probably literally have one of those). The world is going to need more capacity, so their researchers are on the case. "Whoever you are, you're using Bell Labs technology today," Klein said. "And, it's a little bit of sharing that was invented in New Jersey and the research lab that created a lot of the technology that everybody uses today is in your town, is in your state. But then also, think the technology you will be using in the next 10 years could very likely come from that same place in your town. And so, be proud of everything that's been accomplished in New Jersey and how the technology out of Bell Labs has really changed everybody's lives."