Laser Light Companies and Nokia have agreed on a $25 million (USD) Beta Program to commence the deployment of Laser Light's planned global all-optical network. In the agreement, Laser Light will exclusively use Nokia optical and IP solutions and technologies to enable the first stage of its planned Extended Ground Network System ("XGNS") to reach and serve diverse locations. Following the initial Beta in Australia, other Beta locations are planned for the United States, Chile, Spain, and Africa later this year. When completed, Laser Light and Nokia's Beta Program will operate a meshed global platform connecting 5 continents, enabling demonstration of advanced data services and the platform to support integration activities ahead of the global commercial network.
"Nokia has been a wonderful strategic partner for us this past year, and we are honored to be able to continue our collaboration on our network," said Bob Brumley, Chairman and CEO of Laser Light Companies. "Their commitment to our Beta Program, combined with their technologies and expertise, will allow us to accelerate and scale our deployment even further and faster."
Laser Light's global elastic network will initially comprise more than 200 locations of globally meshed optical infrastructure – subsea cable, terrestrial fiber, data facilities, and an industry-first constellation of all-optical satellites – to offer highly secure, high capacity, low latency data services to users in the Metro, Near & Far Edge data markets. Each location will serve regional, local defined data pools, seeking low latency, lower cost access to Cloud services, including Edge computing and robust content delivery.
"We are honoured to have been working closely with Laser Light since our Memorandum of Collaboration announcement last year. Together with Laser Light's and Nokia's partners, we look forward to delivering Laser Light's Beta program ahead of the global XGNS rollout. Laser Light's vision for service innovation and advanced customer use cases is exciting and transformational." said Stuart Hendry, Head of Enterprise for Asia Pacific and Japan, Nokia.
Nokia's Australian operations will also serve as Laser Light's global partner for its overall XGNS program, including provision of selective R&D, advanced engineering, collaborative innovation, optics and IP capabilities.