Nokia announced the signing of a strategic alliance with Furukawa Electric, a leader in network cabling, to accelerate the deployment of optical LANs in Latin America.

Optical LAN is one of the growing commercial services based on advanced fiber optic technology, providing ultra-high bandwidth to support multiple use cases for multiple high bandwidth and critical applications. Nokia has deployed optical LAN solutions to more than 450 enterprise customers worldwide, including hotel chains, manufacturers, airports, schools, healthcare providers, governments and more.

Optical LANs, also known as POLs, are used in commercial buildings and campuses to provide local area network connectivity with significant advantages over traditional copper-based solutions. These solutions offer lower power consumption, higher security, more scalable deployments, and lower total cost of ownership.

Furukawa is the market leader in copper and fiber optic cables in Latin America. Through this agreement, Furukawa will incorporate Nokia’s optical networking equipment into its Laserway passive optical LAN solution, marketed to the enterprise market by its partner ecosystem.

Helio Durigan, Executive Vice President of Furukawa, said: “The partnership between Furukawa and Nokia brings our customers state-of-the-art innovative solutions that can reduce power consumption while delivering significant sustainability benefits. At the same time, it provides a reliable and secure technology platform and enhances corporate governance.”

Marcelo Entreconti, Corporate Head, Latin America, Nokia, said: “Because of the unlimited bandwidth potential of fiber optics, optical LANs are the ultimate long-term solution, currently offered at 10Gb/s, but through simple optical changes. With more than 2,200 leading enterprise customers in the energy, large enterprise, manufacturing, network scale and public sector sectors deploying mission-critical networks, we are proud to partner with the long-established Furukawa to partner with businesses in Brazil for technology integration and validation.”

Optical LAN is a fiber-optic networking technology that meets the changing needs of high-volume enterprise applications. The technology requires less equipment, cabling, footprint and significantly less power than traditional switch-based networks. It also brings future-proof fiber network capacity and performance.