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Nokia has started rolling BEAD qualified products off the line at its manufacturing plant in Wisconsin
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It's testing and verifying the first products
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Products will be available for sale by mid-2024
Nokia’s new manufacturing plant in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, is now open and producing optical line terminals (OLTs) and optical network terminals (ONTs).
Nokia is working with the manufacturer Sanmina to produce the products after the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) determined that OLTs and ONTs must be made in America to qualify for use in BEAD fiber projects.
The plant will make:
- FX and MF OLT modular product lines
- SF-8M sealed OLT
- XS-220X-A ONT
Sandy Motley, Nokia’s U.S. country manager and president of Nokia Fixed Networks, told Fierce, “Products have started rolling off the line. We’re testing and going through various verifications.”
BEAD
Most state broadband offices are currently in the midst of, or beginning, their state challenge processes to further refine the FCC’s broadband map in order to determine BEAD-eligible locations. But Nokia is anticipating some BEAD orders will start coming in for OLTs and ONTs toward the end of this year. Most of the BEAD fiber builds will happen beginning in 2025 and beyond.
Motley said the new plant is targeted for BEAD, but “anyone in the U.S. can order products from this plant.”
According to Nokia, its OLTs and ONTs already power 70% of fiber broadband lines in North America.
Sanmina
Nokia’s products have been added to the lines at Sanmina’s existing plant in Wisconsin. Sanmina makes a lot of other things at this plant, serving a number of verticals including data storage, medical and communications, among others.
The work with Nokia will ultimately add about 200 new employees at the facility.
Motley said Nokia selected Sanmina because it already works with the manufacturer in other global locations. “For the products that they’ve produced with us elsewhere, we’re now on-shoring to this particular factory,” she said.
On Nokia’s first quarter 2024 earnings call last week, CEO Pekka Lundmark said the outlook for the company’s Network Infrastructure group has improved for 2024. “We expect Network Infrastructure will return to net sales growth for full year 2024 with a stronger second half performance,” he said.
Nokia’s Network Infrastructure is composed of Fixed Networks, which does residential broadband, and that’s what the Wisconsin plant is focused on. Network Infrastructure also includes Nokia’s optical, submarine and IP networks business groups.