AT&T and Nokia have signed a five-year agreement under which the vendor will support the carrier’s fiber network, which passed 27.8 million locations as of the second quarter of the year, according to the vendor.
The fiber access technology will be compliant with Build America, Buy America (BABA) rules in place for the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment(BEAD) program.
The contract focuses on Lightspan MF and Altiplano Access Controller technology that will support PON networks that offer capacities of 10G, 25G, 50G, and 100G.
No financial details were included in the press release.
“Fiber plays a crucial role in providing the foundation for the services we offer to our customers,” said Chris Sambar, Head of Network at AT&T, of the Nokia deal. “This expansion will not only enhance broadband access for millions of customers but also sets the stage for the next wave of digital innovation, including Industry 4.0, smart cities, IoT applications, and ultra-high-definition streaming.”
Early last month, Nokia said that 21 of its products had been self-certified for BABA. The FX and MF OLT modular product lines, the SF-8M sealed OLT, and the XS-220X-A ONT were highlighted in the press release.
AT&T and Nokia have a long relationship. In March, 2021, the two companies agreed to a five-year deal under which they would work together on the carrier’s C-band 5G technology. Nokia’s technology supports both standalone and noon-standalone and non-standalone (SA and NSA) approaches.
The next month, the companies completed what Nokia said was the first call on AT&T’s network using 5G technology in C-band spectrum. The call was made in Detroit with a 5G smartphone form factor mobile test device using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X555G modem-RF system, the Nokia AirScale baseband and 5G massive MIMO (mMIMO) antennas that, along with Nokia 5G software, operates in the n77 (3700-3980 MHz) spectrum.
