CommScope and fiber supplier OFS have entered into a new long-term partnership that the two companies say will ensure the availability of optical fiber supply to CommScope for use in its customers’ networks.
Terms of the agreement are not being disclosed.
As part of this agreement, CommScope gets access to a supply of optical fiber to develop fiber cabling products for its wireline and wireless network customers deploying 5G, FTTH as well as cable’s node-plus-zero fiber strategies.
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OFS itself will increase manufacturing capacity, but it did not reveal how much or what facilities it would make invest to meet the terms of the new contract.
The company did say that it would support “a multi-sourced contract from our optical fiber facilities in the United States, Europe and Japan.”
This deal comes at an interesting time for OFS and CommScope, particularly as large service providers such as AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink and others deal with new network issues related to fiber to businesses, consumers and wireless initiatives like small cells and FirstNet. These initiatives will require not only traditional network hardware and software, but also a greater amount of fiber and related infrastructure supplied by companies such as CommScope and OFS.
Fellow fiber suppliers Corning and Prysmian have increased their manufacturing capabilities to accommodate Verizon's Fiber One initiative that will enhance coverage for 4G as well as upcoming 5G and next-gen enterprise services like SDN and cloud, for example.