Telxius Deploys Nokia 800G Coherent Optics

SubTel Forum, based on Nokia
September 15, 2026

Telxius is introducing Nokia coherent pluggable optics rated at 800G into its land-based transport infrastructure across Europe, Latin America and the United States. Announced in September, the rollout uses IP-over-DWDM to expand capacity on existing routes as cloud computing, artificial intelligence and connections between data centers increase demand. Nokia says the approach reduces the space and energy needed for expansion, alongside its cost.

The program includes automation for monitoring faults and performance, coordinating service provisioning and improving operational visibility. It follows a separate demonstration on Telxius' BRUSA submarine system, where the companies transmitted 400Gb/s on each wavelength over 5,600+ km. That result provides subsea context for the partnership, but the current announcement concerns terrestrial deployment. The companies describe an ongoing network upgrade without specifying a completion date, route-by-route rollout schedule or total investment. For submarine network operators, the announcement is relevant to the land-based transport infrastructure that connects with subsea systems and serves international traffic corridors.

Nokia's ICE-X product documentation provides additional technical context. The family uses 3-nm CMOS technology and supports the QSFP-DD800 and OSFP module formats. Nokia positions it for a range of applications, including metropolitan networks, long-haul transport, submarine connections and interconnection between data centers. Its advertised capabilities include carrying 800G over distances of 1,700+ km. This is a product-level performance statement; it should not be read as a measured result for a particular Telxius route or as the transmission rate achieved in the BRUSA trial.

The same documentation describes deployment in routers and thin transponders, giving operators different ways to incorporate coherent optics into a transport architecture. Nokia also highlights programmability and interoperability among equipment vendors, including support for open probabilistic constellation shaping. These features are intended to simplify service activation and troubleshooting while reducing the equipment required as capacity grows. Together, the module formats, host options and software capabilities explain the broader engineering proposition behind compact coherent optics: operators can consider capacity, physical footprint and operational requirements together when planning network expansion.

View source