The network controller solution uses virtualisation to divide the fibre resources as slices of a physical network, enabling its use on a Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) basis. Through this, American Tower has already onboarded three virtual network operator tenants in the country.
“Open Fiber to the home networks are growing rapidly and we’re delighted to be partnering with Nokia to help our network tenants deliver high speed broadband services and network connectivity to their residential and business customers in Argentina," said Paul Choiseul, vice president of innovation, transport and networking, OCTO at American Tower.
"With Nokia’s collaboration, we are leveraging the Altiplano SDAN Domain Controller to enhance our neutral host Network-as-a-service (NaaS) platform, allowing enhanced automation and delivering autonomy of operation to our virtual operators. Through the use of industry-standard APIs, Altiplano allows us to grant virtual network operators a “slice” of our network they can operate in a similar fashion as they would operate their own infrastructure, so they can offer differentiated wholesale products to address the unique needs of their customers and the services they require.”
American Tower‘s portfolio is comprised of approximately 220,000 communications sites which includes fibre networks in select geographies. The new FTTH network in Argentina, with Nokia as the sole supplier, spans close to a million homes passed.
With traditional fibre wholesale solutions, service innovation and market differentiation is difficult for tenant operators due to the stricy design, lack of network visibility and limited control in service delivery. Nokia’s Altiplano Open Access solution, an add-on to its Altiplano software suite, enables a more flexible service design tailored to the needs of both large and small operator tenants.
“Neutral host business models lower the cost of fibre deployments and attract new sources of capital, driving the FTTH market to enter underserved areas," said Sandy Motley, president of fixed networks at Nokia.
"The Nokia Altiplano Open Access solution is uniquely built to support infrastructure builders with flexible network sharing options, while the virtual network operators get the customised capabilities they need to support their business and improve subscriber experience.”
Nokia Professional Services is supporting the Altiplano integration in American Tower’s cloud and network environment.
