The Nordic companies have entered a partnership to deploy Nokia’s next-generation fiber technology, accelerating GlobalConnect’s fiber expansion across the Nordic region. The collaboration is already underway, with Nokia selected as the supplier for the Finnish roll-out, where GlobalConnect will invest €500 million over the coming years. In addition to delivering higher speeds, the technology will reduce energy consumption in the fiber network by 6 to 15 times once the planned number of household connections has been reached.
“We are pleased to partner with Nokia to implement a state-of-the-art, energy-efficient, technologically advanced fiber solution in Finland. This will significantly strengthen our network while supporting further digitalization for Finnish households, businesses and municipalities. It also demonstrates GlobalConnect’s commitment to providing high-quality services on the most future-proof network in the Nordics,” says Uffe Tomasson, CTO of GlobalConnect.
The new technology, known as XGS-PON, offers low power consumption and is a highly energy-efficient alternative to the older Point-to-Point (P2P) systems that remain common in the region today. With XGS-PON, GlobalConnect will be able to offer customers fiber speeds up to 10 Gb/s. Beyond the rollout in Finland, GlobalConnect is currently testing the technology in Sweden and plans to launch commercially in the first quarter of 2025.
GlobalConnect will also continue to prepare its network for future upgrades to enable even higher speeds such as 25 Gb/s, 50 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s.
Fiber deployment is critical to the future of Finland and Europe, delivering the scale and capacity required by both consumers and enterprises for years to come. Fiber is the most sustainable way to provide high-speed connections and can be upgraded easily, ensuring customers are ready for tomorrow’s broadband today. “Together with GlobalConnect, we can build a fiber network that will drive productivity, strengthen economies and promote social inclusion across all parts of society,” says Rafael De Fermin, Senior Vice President for Network Infrastructure Europe at Nokia.
The newly signed Nordic partnership with Nokia covers Finland, Norway and Sweden. Since 2020, GlobalConnect and Nokia have also worked together in Denmark.