NOK Solutions to Boost Africa's Fiber Network: Will the Stock Gain?

Nokia Corporation NOK recently announced that Fibertime has opted to deploy its cutting-edge fiber solution to bring high-speed broadband to underserved areas of South Africa. Through this collaboration, the leading African Internet service provider plans to connect up to 1.5 million new customers, utilizing Nokia’s Lightspan FX Optical Line Terminals (OLTs) and Wi-Fi 6-enabled Optical Network Terminals (ONTs).Digging Deep Into NOK’s DealThe initiative is centered around Fibertime’s flagship product, offering uncapped, unthrottled Internet for just R5 a day, an essential service for millions across the region. As part of the agreement, the company will deploy Nokia’s state-of-the-art Lightspan FX series of high-capacity access nodes, engineered to meet the demands of large-scale fiber deployments that deliver superior performance and scalability. With built-in Software-Defined Networking programmability, the solution ensures seamless Gigabit experiences for residential, mobile and business users. Fibertime also aims to deploy 500,000 Nokia Wi-Fi 6-enabled ONTs, prioritizing homes in areas with limited Internet access, over the next three years. This large-scale deployment will be powered by Nokia's ONT Easystart, an automated solution designed to streamline the ONT activation process, ensuring faster and more efficient deployments. The fiber deployment will initially target key urban centers such as Cape Town, Johannesburg, Gqeberha, Mangaung and Stellenbosch, expanding gradually into more regions.In addition to the fiber rollout, the partnership will also witness upgrades to the network, supported by Nokia’s Altiplano platform. This platform supports 10G XGS-PON technology and offers a complete suite of network management and automation functions to help streamline network management, improve scalability and ensure the long-term reliability of its infrastructure.Does NOK Stand to Gain From the Deployment?With the emergence of the smartphone market and subsequent usage of mobile broadband, user demand for coverage speed and quality has increased in recent times. Further, to maintain superior performance as traffic increases, there is also a continuous need for network tuning and optimization. Nokia’s expertise in mission-critical networks is well-established, with deployments across more than 2,600 leading enterprise customers in the transportation, energy, manufacturing, webscale and public sector segments worldwide.This partnership between Nokia and Fibertime is a major step in addressing South Africa’s digital gap. With millions of homes still without access to affordable, high-quality broadband, the market opportunity is significant. Nokia’s fiber solution, which includes both OLTs and ONTs, will help to create a semi-mobile network that can serve entire communities, providing broadband access beyond just homes and businesses. This approach will help bridge the digital divide and provide individuals with the tools to access education, healthcare and employment opportunities more easily. These advancements are expected to generate incremental demand for Nokia’s solutions, leading to higher revenues. An improved financial performance is likely to propel the stock upward.NOK’s Stock Price PerformanceShares of Nokia have gained 31% over the past year compared with the industry's growth of 51.5%.Image Source: Zacks Investment ResearchNOK’s Zacks Rank and Key PicksNokia currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the broader industry have been discussed below.Arista Networks, Inc. ANET sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.In the last reported quarter, ANET delivered an earnings surprise of 14.83%. It provides cloud networking solutions for data centers and cloud computing environments. The company offers 10/25/40/50/100 gigabit Ethernet switches and routers optimized for next-generation data center networks.Workday Inc. WDAY carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. In the last reported quarter, it delivered an earnings surprise of 7.36%. WDAY is a leading provider of enterprise-level software solutions for financial management and human resource domains. The company’s cloud-based platform combines finance and HR in a single system, making it easier for organizations to provide analytical insights and decision support. Ericsson ERIC carries a Zacks Rank #2 at present. In the last reported quarter, it delivered an earnings surprise of 22.22%. Ericsson is a leading provider of communication networks, telecom services and support solutions and is now expanding its role into an ICT (Information and Communications Technology) solutions provider.5 Stocks Set to DoubleEach was handpicked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in 2024. While not all picks can be winners, previous recommendations have soared +143.0%, +175.9%, +498.3% and +673.0%.Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.Today, See These 5 Potential Home Runs >>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Ericsson (ERIC): Free Stock Analysis Report Nokia Corporation (NOK): Free Stock Analysis Report Workday, Inc. (WDAY): Free Stock Analysis Report Arista Networks, Inc. (ANET): Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks