KIANEWS Nokia expands fiber broadband equipment manufacturing to India
09. 02. 2023 Thursday / By: Robert Denes / Industrial / Exact time: BST / Print this page
T elecom equipment maker Nokia on Thursday said it will expand production of PON optical line terminals (OLT) at its factory in Sriperimbudur near Chennai to meet growing demand from local customers in India and global markets. PON stands for Passive Optical Network.
In a statement announcing the latest move, Nokia said a shift in consumer behavior - from working at home to data-rich entertainment services - is increasing demand for broadband.
"This demand is accompanied by strong institutional support and significant funding from governments and private equity funds around the world that are driving investment in broadband and fiber connectivity," the company says.
Nokia is currently participating in the government's Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme and is expanding its manufacturing capacity to Chennai in response to growing demand. Demand for fiber is also shifting to new regions, with Asia-Pacific seeing strong demand in markets such as Japan, India and Southeast Asia.
Much of this demand comes in the form of fiber to the home (FTTH), but there is also significant demand from mobile network operators (MNOs) as they deploy 5G and need next-generation fiber in their transport networks to cope with expected surges for fulfillment in data traffic.
Via LinkSanjay Malik, senior vice president and head of the India market at Nokia, noted that both landline and mobile operators in India are experiencing huge demand for fiber connectivity.
"OLT manufacturing at our Chennai facility will provide a timely boost to meet this demand in due course. Indian operators will benefit from the increased availability of both existing Lightspan product lines and the upcoming GPON access nodes, which are smaller lower density OLTs to meet a set of circumstances and requirements,” Malik added.
