Nokia adds more U.S.

Articles / News

Nokia expanded its U.S.-based manufacturing push by striking a deal with California-based Fabrinet to construct optical networking equipment. The vendor is also putting together an easy-to-purchase “network-in-a-box” package of networking equipment that complies with the recently implemented Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program.

The manufacturing deal is an agreement with Fabrinet to produce multi-rate optical modules for optical line terminals (OLTs) at Fabrinet’s facility in Santa Clara, California. That production is currently scheduled to begin next year.

Stefaan Vanhastel, VP of marketing and innovation for Nokia Fixed Networks, explained to SDxCentral in an interview that the components are the “transceivers that go into OLTs” and are “basically multi-PON modules.” The OLTs act as the receiving end of passive optical network (PON) fiber deployments that include gigabit PON (GPON) and XGS-PON.

XGS-PON is an evolution of GPON, supporting symmetrical fixed wavelength speeds of 10 Gb/s. This provides up to four times greater downlink bandwidth and up to eight times greater uplink bandwidth capacity compared with traditional GPON.

Vanhastel said Nokia selected Fabrinet for this partnership because it already had an established relationship with the vendor. This made it easier for Nokia to transfer its technology to Fabrinet for quicker scaling of production.

“Optical modules are quite high tech. There’s a limited number of parties or partners that could do something like that,” Vanhastel said. “Fabrinet has the expertise and the capacity to take this on.”

Nokia claims more than 70% of U.S. fiber broadband connections in North America are made through its equipment. Vanhastel noted that the modules being produced by Fabrinet are specific to Nokia OLT and optical network terminal (ONT) equipment, but can handle transmission using the ONU management control interface (OMCI) standard.

Nokia is not stating the exact number of new jobs that will come out of this deal, with Vanhastel explaining that will depend “on some practical questions we still need to answer, but this will create additional jobs and these are high-tech components so these will also be high-tech jobs that are introduced.”

Production timing is aligned to expected disbursement of BEAD program funding. The U.S. government allocated $42.5 billion in funds to that program in late June, which will be distributed to all 50 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories to expand broadband access, with equipment tied to that expansion required to be built in the U.S.

The Fabrinet deal also follows on Nokia’s unveiling earlier this month of plans to produce fiber-optic broadband network equipment targeted specifically at the BEAD program. The equipment includes OLT cards for modular access nodes, a smaller OLT form factor, OLT optical modules and an “outdoor-hardened” ONT.

Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark, during a presentation at the Sanmina plant, stated this partnership would allow the vendor to quickly scale U.S. production to meet the needs of its customers, specifically noting Verizon, AT&T and Telephone Data Systems (TDS).

That initial move includes an agreement with Wisconsin-based equipment manufacturer Sanmina that will create 200 new jobs and is scheduled to begin production next year.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at the Sanmina event, touting the program’s benefits toward creating U.S. jobs.

“When we made this investment, we knew that there would then be an increased demand for fiber optic cable and for other products that connect people to the internet,” Vice President Harris said of that program. “We knew that the demand would skyrocket. We knew companies would increase production and hire more workers.

“And whereas in the past, many of those jobs would have been created overseas, President Biden and I required that the materials and products used in these projects — from steel to electronics to fiber optic cable — must be made in America, by workers in America. We are determined to create jobs in America and keep jobs in America.”

Nokia’s made-in-the-U.S. efforts are also being plugged into a new “network-in-a-box” program the vendor is targeting at the same BEAD program. This all-in-one package includes Nokia’s IP routing, fiber OLT, fiber ONT, Wi-Fi equipment and software designed to make it easier for an operator or enterprise to build a fiber broadband network.

Keith Russell, marketing director for Nokia’s Fixed Networks business, explained that this package builds on work the vendor started last year.

“Last year we announced that to help with supply chain challenges we were setting aside inventory to help operators build out their networks on time, and we found that there was a lot of interest in that when we made that announcement,” Russell said. “Over the course of the last year, we’ve worked to expand it further and today it includes more components. We include all of our equipment that we have, or a subset of our equipment for it, as well as for fiber networks, all really preconfigured and set up for an easy build of a fiber broadband network.”

This preconfiguration includes different pieces that can support unique greenfield and brownfield deployments. “We have configurations to help operators move to XGS from an existing GPON build and grow their network with XGS while still working with our GPON network,” Russell added.

Russell did note that components made from the Sanmina and Fabrinet production deals will be included in the new package, but that some of the package components could also come from outside sources.

“As we look at demand and as things evolve with the BEAD program, we’ll see what components might need to be added,” Russell said. “Currently this is basically based on all of the equipment that we already sell globally through our global supply chain. … We’re pretty confident in what we’ve announced for the BEAD program because it very clearly spells out the requirements. And I think the components that we’ve already announced will fill that need quite well.”