Nokia announced it will launch a dedicated security unit, which will be part of its mobile broadband organisation, on 1 June.

In a statement,  the vendor said the unit would ensure new products have security “baked in”.

The supplier added that it wanted to develop operator business models around security and make it a “positive differentiator”.

“The new security unit will bring together security experts and talent from across the company – customer operations, global services and technology & innovation teams, for example – with the aim of tackling the full set of requirements for robust telco security,” said Marc Rouanne, EVP (mobile broadband).

“We will continue to encourage industry dialogue and knowledge sharing in terms of security research to improve awareness of this crucially important area of telco business, including with open source software. This will become critically important as mobile broadband networks are starting to evolve towards the cloud.”

According to a recent Nokia study, 75 per cent of customers consider security to be the operator’s responsibility. A significant portion of mobile subscribers are likely to switch operator in case of security issues, the study found, and are willing to pay extra for reliable security protection.

Nokia also recently announced plans to launch a mobile broadband security centre in Berlin for knowledge-exchange with customers, business and research partners, and public authorities.

Alcatel Lucent, meanwhile, is in exclusive negotiations to sell its network security business to French defence manufacturer Thales. The French-US supplier has a target of hitting €1 billion in asset sales by end 2015.