The Finnish firm Nokia said on Tuesday that it has reached a deal with the American telecommunications giant AT&T to construct a fibre network in the United States.
The agreement comes after Ericsson, a Swedish rival of Nokia, won a significant contract with AT&T. In December, the American operator decided to construct a telecom network that will accommodate 70% of its wireless traffic in the country by the end of 2026.
Nokia is looking to expand its fibre business following AT&T’s $14 billion, five-year agreement with Ericsson.
While noting that the new five-year fibre agreement would “boost broadband access for millions of users” in the United States and support AT&T’s extensive fibre network footprint, which “passed 27.8 million total fibre locations as of the second quarter of 2024,” Nokia described the agreement as “a significant milestone” and withheld its financial value.
Nokia announced a 32% decline in profit in July, but CEO Pekka Lundmark predicted that net sales would rise sharply in the second half of the year, citing the strengthening US fibre market and a $42 billion government initiative to increase citizens’ access to high-speed broadband.
In order to comply with U.S. government funding criteria, Nokia stated that the fibre agreement with AT&T is “Build America, Buy America-compliant”.
In an attempt to capitalise on the billions of dollars that are being invested in data centres to support the development of artificial intelligence, Nokia said in June that it would acquire Infinera, a U.S. manufacturer of optical networking gear, for $2.3 billion.