DELTA taps Nokia to develop 400G optical transport network

As it looks to handle increased traffic and further expansion of its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) roll-out, Netherlands operator DELTA Fiber has selected leading comms tech provider Nokia to provide a next-generation high capacity optical transport network, based on 400Gbps wavelengths designed to offer customers enhanced service quality and speeds, and enable a simplified network that increases operational and cost efficiency.

The Dutch telecoms company has networks deployed throughout the Netherlands and is on a programme of constantly rolling out new networks, primarily in rural areas of the country, and as it does so it is enabling a growing number of people to access fast internet, to complement the 700,000 dwellings and companies it has already connected to its network.

DELTA Fiber Netherlands is owned by the Swedish investment company EQT and the brands DELTA, Caiway, DELTA Fiber Netwerk and ZeelandNet are all part of a joint company with approximately 800 employees.

To achieve its aim of rapidly deploying services to its customers, reduce network total cost of ownership and extend network lifecycles, DELTA Fiber will use the Nokia 1830 Photonic Service Switch platforms, powered by Nokia’s Photonic Service Engine technology. This will support DELTA Fiber’s deployment of a new dense wavelength division multiplexing network, incorporating Nokia’s family of reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexers, enabling optimised core and metro applications to cover the entire country.

The core network build is currently underway to support 19 sites and will be followed by the deployment of metro sites, covering approximately 75 locations.

“Nokia’s highly scalable optical transport network will play a critical role in enabling DELTA Fiber to grow with the needs of its customers both today and in the future,” said DELTA Fiber chief technology officer John Wittekamp. “With almost a doubling of traffic each year, we have put in place an aggressive goal to roll out FTTH over the next decade. The new network will address the requirements of exponential traffic growth without compromising reliability and resiliency of the network.”

“We’re excited to expand our optical relationship with DELTA Fiber and increase Nokia’s footprint overall as its multi-domain supplier,” added Rafael de Fermin, senior vice-president of IP and Optics for Europe at Nokia. “The new optical transport network is key to ensuring a high-performance experience for DELTA Fiber’s customers through its new access networks.”

The deal is part of a broader cooperation by Nokia with DELTA Fiber to support its expansion plans, which also includes Nokia supplying XGS.PON access network and customer premise equipment. Such passive optical network technology is already seeing use among leading operators in Europe.

Leading Belgian operator Proximus is using Nokia PON technology in what is said to be the first-ever 25G passive optical network to connect the Havenhuis building in the Port of Antwerp with the Proximus central office in the middle of the city.

In July 2021, BT-owned UK broadband provision firm Openreach announced that it was working with Nokia to conduct the UK’s first-ever tests of what it says is a new full-fibre technology, which it believes could deliver ultra-reliable broadband services that are 10 times faster than today’s UK standard deployments.