Nokia is set to unveil a new deal with Oracle Corp. in a bid to increase use of its often-overlooked mapping software. The new deal will provide Oracle customers with access to Nokia's growing trove of mapping data and location services.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, the deal is set to be announced on Monday, Oct. 1, at the OracleWorld conference in San Francisco. While Nokia is struggling to remain relevant in an increasingly crowded and competitive mobile market, executives are looking to capitalize on the company's mapping services as well, especially since those services go head-to-head with Google Maps.

Meanwhile, Oracle will tout the deal as an easy way for its stable of customers to use Nokia's maps for integrating broad and consistent mapping capabilities into Oracle applications. A spokeswoman for Nokia confirmed the deal on Sunday, Sept. 30, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The Oracle deal announcement seems perfectly timed, as it follows an eventful week in terms of mapping software. After dumping Google Maps in favor of its own mapping application in iOS 6, Apple drew a firestorm of criticism for its faulty maps. Amid a full-blown maps fiasco, Apple eventually issued an apology and recommended rival mapping services until it fixes its own.

Nokia rushed to take advantage of Apple's maps trouble, and recently claimed that Nokia maps are far better than other mapping applications currently available. The Finnish company has invested heavily in creating complex maps capable of helping users navigate even hard-to-reach areas via smartphones or other devices. According to Nokia, its maps cover 200 countries.

"We have strong mapping, we have strong navigation capabilities, but those examples are just the tip of the iceberg on what we believe - and you certainly see it from our competitors as well, what they believe - the future holds as it relates to location-based services," said Nokia CEO Stephen Elop.

Nokia acquired Navteq back in 2007 for $8.1 billion, and has been looking to grow its location and commerce business ever since. The Finnish company started off with a dominant position in the automobile-navigation industry due to that acquisition, and has pushed to integrate its mapping services into mobile phones and other applications, including a range of Microsoft products.

As part of its bid to expand its mapping business, Nokia recently announced new deals with Groupon and Amazon, which decided to ditch Google Maps in favor of Nokia's data. Yahoo and Microsoft have deals with Nokia as well.

After investing billions of dollars into its location and commerce business, Nokia saw a great opportunity in this deal with Oracle, which largely caters to enterprises rather than customers. The deal aims to introduce Nokia's mapping technology to a whole new channel of users, marking an important milestone in expanding the reach and capabilities of the company's mapping data.

Nokia's mapping unit generated roughly $1.2 billion in revenue in 2011, accounting for a small fraction of the company's annual sales. Nonetheless, Elop has repeatedly highlighted that Nokia's Location & Commerce business is a critical element in the company's future plans. The Oracle deal is a significant step forward towards those endeavors.