Infinera wants everyone to know that Nokia is not the only optical networking vendor that is compliant with the recently implemented Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, and that the Silicon Valley-based firm is already producing components compliant with the $42.5 billion U.S. initiative.

Rob Shore, SVP of marketing at Infinera, told SDxCentral in an interview that the federal government’s recent release of U.S.-based manufacturing requirements for equipment eligible for BEAD funding was a reason for the vendor to tout its current compliance. This includes compliance for Infinera’s ICE-X 800-gig coherent pluggables and compound semiconductor components.

“This is just a re-affirmation of the fact that we build our stuff in the United States, really kind of from the ground up, and purchasing our equipment to help build your infrastructure can help network operators achieve those levels of American-made products,” Shore said.

Shore explained that Infinera’s U.S. production includes an optical compound semiconductor fabrication facility in California and testing and packaging work in Pennsylvania. These components are used as part of telecom networking infrastructure that supports wide-area networking, broadband and 5G deployments.

Infinera earlier this year used its U.S.-made home-court advantage to release a line of coherent optical subsystems and coherent pluggable optical engines that Shore said positioned the vendor ahead of rivals like Ciena. Shore explained that this was in part due to the vendor’s ownership of its personal indium phosphide optical semiconductor fabrication plant and that it does “a lot more in InP than anybody else, [more than] a lot of other people, Ciena included.”

A recent Dell’Oro Group report ranked Infinera as one of the world’s largest wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) equipment providers. Others included Nokia and Ciena, and China-based vendors Huawei and ZTE.

However, U.S. operators have begun ripping out legacy equipment from those last two vendors as part of the broader U.S. government push to eliminate equipment from China-based vendors from domestic telecom networks. Windstream, for instance, recently replaced its Huawei equipment with gear from Cisco and Infinera.

Another factor in Infinera's push to identify itself as U.S.-made was the splash made by Nokia recently when it announced plans to also start making optical networking components in the U.S. That announcement, which included the promise of hundreds of jobs, drew the presence of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.

“There are certainly equipment providers that are taking out ads saying, oh, we're going to start production in the United States, and they're getting a lot of attention for that. And we're sitting there thinking, we've been producing things in the United States for 25 years,” Shore said.

Nokia followed up its initial VP-backed announcement by striking a deal with California-based Fabrinet to construct optical networking equipment. That deal calls for Fabrinet to produce multirate optical modules for optical line terminals (OLTs) at Fabrinet’s facility in Santa Clara, California. That production is currently scheduled to begin next year.

Nokia’s production timing is aligned to expected disbursement of BEAD program funding. The U.S. government allocated funds to that program in late June, which will be distributed to all 50 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories to expand broadband access, with equipment tied to that expansion required to be built in the U.S.

“When we made this investment, we knew that there would then be an increased demand for fiber optic cable and for other products that connect people to the internet,” Vice President Harris said of that program during a speech at a Sanmina production facility in Wisconsin that will be working on Nokia’s efforts. “We knew that the demand would skyrocket. We knew companies would increase production and hire more workers.

“And whereas in the past, many of those jobs would have been created overseas, President Biden and I required that the materials and products used in these projects — from steel to electronics to fiber optic cable — must be made in America, by workers in America,” Harris added. “We are determined to create jobs in America and keep jobs in America.”

Other vendors are also set to benefit from the BEAD program.

Corning earlier this year opened a new optical cable manufacturing plant in Hickory, North Carolina, designed to help accelerate the availability of passive optical fiber to support broadband expansion. The vendor said the expansion would add “hundreds of jobs” to Corning’s existing North Carolina workforce of more than 5,000 employees.

“Our latest manufacturing announcement is part of a series of investments by Corning in fiber and cable manufacturing totaling more than $500 million since 2020,” a Corning spokesperson explained in an email to SDxCentral. “Altogether, these investments nearly double Corning’s ability to serve the U.S. optical cable market — ensuring strong U.S. supply of optical fiber and cable to support network buildouts funded by the federal government’s [BEAD] program.”

The vendor last year also signed a long-term deal with AT&T as the basis for building a new cable manufacturing facility in Gilbert, Arizona. The two also formed a “Fiber Optic Training Program” with Corning, targeted at training 50,000 people to design, install and maintain fiber networks.

Other fiber vendor moves include CommScope expanding a production facility in Catawba, North Carolina, that will create more than 250 new jobs over the next five years, and Prysmian investing $30 million to convert its Jackson, Tennessee, copper cable facility to produce fiber optic cables.