Present-day mobile telephony was created by the Nordic public telecommunications companies. Its foundation was laid in genuine Nordic cooperation in the development of the NMT standard, “mother” of modern mobile telephony, in 1969–1981. Absolutely crucial for success, the NMT group designed a solid and reliable system architecture for mobile calls and boldly took the step to opt for intelligent terminals. Other decisive elements included roaming and handover and the principle of handing the technology over to the rest of the world, free of charge.Later, this attitude led Ericsson and Nokia to victory in the “world wars” that were later fought over the technology standards for 2G, 3G and 4G. In our view, the core in the Nordic view on technology, society and man can be summed up in terms like transparency, nerdy attitude, result-orientation and team power. Culture will beat strategy, every time, and these characteristics explain the Nordic countries’ dominance in telecommunications development.