Announced on 25 March, the acquisition will enable Nokia to address what it terms the “critical and rapidly evolving” optical connectivity requirements of 5G, a move that is hoped will support the firm to expand its market footprint.
A statement from Nokia read: “Ownership of these key assets brings time-to-market and cost advantages to Nokia’s broad portfolio of networking solutions by applying the massive scale and economies of silicon design and manufacturing to the optical supply chain.”
Established in 2014, the US-based Elenion Technologies specialises in low-cost silicon photonics technology to support the integration of complex devices into a single chip to create new form factors and functions.
The firm has also developed proprietary technology that allows it to use established electronics industry manufacturing facilities for the creation of chips that can manipulate light and electrons.
“Using this technology, we can build silicon photonic chips that move light through optical fibres, dramatically improving the performance and reducing the cost of moving data around a data centre and around the world,” the firm explained.
When Nokia confirmed it would press ahead with the deal back in February, Sam Bucci, the firm’s head of optical networking said the acquisition provided a “strong strategic fit”.
“Elenion’s solutions can be readily integrated into Nokia’s product offerings and address multiple high growth segments including 5G, cloud and data centre networking. When combined with Nokia, Elenion technologies will accelerate the growth and scale of Nokia’s optical networking business, while enabling us to cost-effectively address new markets,” Bucci added.
In other news, Nokia declared more than 3,000 patent families to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) this month. It said the technologies are essential for the 5G standard and that they reflected the "continuing leadership and strong momentum in cellular technology R&D and standardisation".
Nokia has also completed the first phase of Port of Zeebrugge’s 5G-ready, industrial-grade private wireless network deployment. With high-bandwidth and low-latency connectivity, the network is now being used for connectivity with tugboats, air pollution detectors, security cameras and quay sensors.
It will also be leveraged during the upcoming construction of a new sea lock and during building and maintenance of offshore wind farms.
