Nokia and Fabrinet will manufacture multi-rate optical modules for Optical Line Terminals (OLTs) suitable for use in the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) deployments beginning next year. The devices will be made at Fabricant’s Santa Clara, CA, facility.
Optical Line Terminals (OLTs) convert signals from light to electrical signals and vice versa, a necessary step in linking homes, businesses and other endpoints to high-speed networks. Multi-rate versions of the technology facilitate speed upgrades as demands change.
“Many in the industry have said that manufacturing optical modules in the U.S. was impossible,” Sandy Motley, the President of Fixed Networks at Nokia, said in a press release.
“Today, we’re proving it can be done. Working alongside the Department of Commerce and Fabrinet, we’re excited to add optical modules to the list of technology solutions that will be produced here in the U.S. and become available to programs like BEAD which are so critical to bridging the digital divide.”
This is not Nokia’s first product announcement related to the $42.5 billion BEAD program, which includes a provision requiring participants to buy domestically produced products.
Earlier this month, the company said that it will begin manufacturing equipment for the BEAD program at a facility in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin this year. The facility is owned by Sanmina, a Fortune 500 company.
The products fabricated at the facility include:
- Optical line termination cards for a modular access node
- Small form factor optical line terminals (OLTs)
- OLT optical modules
- An outdoor-hardened optical network terminal (ONT)
Separately, Adtran said yesterday at it will invest as much as $5 million in its Huntsville, Alabama facility to support domestic manufacturing of fiber equipment. The investment is expected to create about 300 jobs
