Matti Makkonen (16 April 1952 – 26 June 2015) was a Finnish

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

in the field of mobile communications. He was employed (among others) by

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finland, i ...

Networks and the then Telecom Finland (branded as Tele), as well as Oy. Makkonen played a leading role in creating the mobile communication unit of what is today

TeliaSonera Telia Company AB is a Swedish multinational telecommunications company and mobile network operator present in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Telia also owns TV4 Media which includes TV4 in Sweden, MTV Oy in F ...

. In 2008, Makkonen was awarded ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...

'' Innovation Award in the computing and telecommunications category for his work on

text messaging Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile devices, desktops/laptops, or another type of compatible comput ...

(SMS).

Career

''Sources:'' Makkonen was born in

Suomussalmi Suomussalmi () is a municipality in Finland and is located in the Kainuu region about northeast of Kajaani, the capital of Kainuu and south of Kuusamo. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The popul ...

. He graduated as an electrical engineer from Oulu University in 1976. Subsequently, he worked at the Telecoms and Postal agency (PTL, TeliaSonera) as a systems engineer, developing wireless communications services for the NMT mobile networks (1976–1983). He was also the vice president of PTL 1984–1988 and at the same time actively involved in the development of the

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such ...

-technology until 1988. He became the president of the mobile communication unit in 1989, which had been renamed Telecom Finland. He also served as the vice president of the Mobile Communications Group during 1995–2000. In 2000, he was briefly the president and board member of the Mobile Internet operator unit of the company, which at that point had been renamed Sonera. As of November 2000, Makkonen joined Nokia Networks Professional Services as the units director. He later became the CEO of Finnet Oy on 1 February 2003, a position which he held until 31 October 2005. At the beginning of 2006, Makkonen served as a board member and consultant for Tieto-X and the PR agency Evia. Makkonen was the president and CEO of ICT company Anvia from August 2010 to the spring of 2013 when he left because of serious illness, and later retired.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Makkonen, Matti People from Suomussalmi 1952 births 2015 deaths Text messaging 20th-century Finnish engineers