AT&T Taps Nokia for Fibre Expansion with Lightspan & Altiplano Deal

Nokia has struck a five-year agreement with AT&T aimed at expanding and modernising the telco's fibre broadband footprint. Under the deal, Nokia will supply its Lightspan MF platform and Altiplano Access Controller to support upgrades and future network performance.

The Lightspan MF solution is designed to accommodate next-generation Passive Optical Network (PON) technologies ranging from 10G/25G up through 50G/100G. This gives AT&T the flexibility to roll out higher-capacity fibre infrastructure as demand for bandwidth continues to grow. Meanwhile, the Altiplano controller is intended to boost network automation and streamline service operations for the operator.

All work under the agreement adheres to Build America, Buy America requirements, making the deployment compliant with U.S. domestic sourcing legislation. Chris Sambar, Head of Network at AT&T, said that fibre is essential not only for serving more customers with high-speed broadband but also for enabling emerging use-cases such as smart cities, IoT, ultra-HD streaming and other future digital innovations.

Sandy Motley, Nokia's President of Fixed Networks, noted that the platform lets operators future-proof their infrastructure by combining current PON technologies with the capacity to scale up as needed.

While Nokia did not disclose the financial value of the contract, the deal adds to a competitive landscape where vendors are pushing for larger portions of broadband infrastructure investment. For AT&T, this is a strategic move to keep pace with rising bandwidth demand and to reduce latency and congestion in its fibre network.