Nokia announces most advanced fiber broadband platform in the world

  • Nokia Lightspan MF-14 is the world’s first generation 6 broadband platform enabling convergence of all services over a single fiber infrastructure.
  • The platform is in trials with operators worldwide, with deployments planned before the year end.
  • Designed for a new era of fiber broadband characterized by mass deployment of 25G, 50G and 100G PON networks, MF-14 addresses operators’ broadband needs for decades to come.


Nokia has announced the world’s first Generation 6 broadband platform, designed for a ‘fibre-for-everything’ world where fibre broadband networks evolve to become a single infrastructure for all services.

The new Lightspan MF-14 platform extends the upper end of Nokia’s fibre broadband portfolio bringing unmatched capacity, low latency, intelligence, six nines reliability and the highest power efficiency, enabling operators to address broadband needs for the next decades. The new platform will be premiered at the Network X event in Amsterdam from October 18 to 20.

The industry is entering a ‘fibre-for-everything’ era. Once operators have deployed fibre-to-the-home, their networks pass every other building in the street, as well as the homes, meaning they can connect businesses and other services. Fibre PON will be capable of supporting high bandwidth consumer services, industry 4.0 applications, business connectivity, 5G transport and smart city services.

 Revenue opportunities

This creates more revenue opportunities, lowers TCO and significantly reduces overall power consumption. This new broadband era, designated Broadband 6 by the World Broadband Association (WBBA), requires a new technical solution. Nokia’s pioneering Lightspan MF-14 is the first Gen 6 optical line terminal (OLT) in the world and has already been selected by customers building 25 Gb/second capable networks in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.

Geert Heyninck, Nokia’s VP Broadband Networks, said: “Fibre-to-the-home is becoming fibre-for-everything. This is enabled by several technology advances, most notably higher speed PON technologies to accommodate all new services, and SDN to bring more intelligence in the network. If you think about it, the massive number of connection points on fibre make it a challenge to get an instant view of everything that happens in your network, fully automate network control, and perform actions with no service interruption. Our current portfolio is doing an excellent job in supporting many of these requirements for today’s and tomorrow’s services, but we are looking ahead. The MF-14 platform will suit operators who are planning large scale 25G PON, 50G and even 100G PON within the same environment.”

In his recent report Erik Keith, Senior Research Analyst for Broadband Infrastructure at S&P Global, says: "The PON market is at a pivotal moment in the evolution of networks, where fibre broadband means so much more than residential connectivity. There is a huge opportunity for service providers to connect everything much more efficiently by leveraging their existing fibre broadband networks. After all, the same fibre cables that were originally laid in residential areas also pass commercial buildings such as office blocks, hospitals and government properties. This approach eliminates multiple overlay networks, minimises digging up the streets, and lowers energy use substantially. The new Lightspan MF-14 OLT can enable operators to deploy a solution that will last for decades, while providing a platform that can increase network performance exponentially compared to most networks in use today."

Generation leap

Based on new, advanced hardware and disaggregated software design, MF-14 is a generation leap in fibre access solutions. It is the highest capacity platform in the industry and the only solution ready for mass delivery of 25G, 50G and 100G PON services. It’s also the industry’s first OLT with the six-nines availability and sub-millisecond latency needed for mission critical industry 4.0 and 5G transport services.

 Frontier Communications, the first in the US to trial 25G PON, is also the first to evaluate MF-14 in its live network. Frontier’s Scott Mispagel, SVP National Architecture and Engineering, said: “We are proud to be the first to embrace this next-generation platform. This is another way for us to provide customers with the fastest broadband available. The MF-14 platform will support our path to 100G using our existing fibre network and future-proof our network with speeds that will continue to outpace cable and other technologies for generations to come.”

 In July this year CityFibre – the UK’s largest independent full fibre infrastructure platform – signed a 10-year equipment agreement to support its nationwide network upgrade. John Franklin, CTIO, CityFibre said: “As we accelerate our full fibre rollout to serve a third of the UK market by 2025, the demand placed on those networks will also accelerate. MF-14’s flexibility and capacity will help us to meet the needs of our partner’s and their customers for generations to come.”