The world's largest cellphone maker Nokia said on Friday it had bought U.S. geographic technology firm MetaCarta, as a part of its strategy to offer local navigation services to its customers. The company also announced that it has completed the acquisition of Novarra, Inc., which was initially announced on March 26, 2010. Novara is offering a mobile browser and services platform.

MetaCarta, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a privately owned company which employs over 30 people and has expertise in geographic intelligence solutions. Nokia did not disclose the deal price.

MetaCarta's technology combines geosearch and geotagging allowing users to find written content about any place.

In January Nokia announced it would offer free navigation on its cellphones and would also make available local applications and services to its mobile phone users.

The move was seen as Nokia's attempt to compete with makers such as TomTom and Garmin as well as Google, which offers free navigation on Motorola' Droid smartphones in the North America market.