Vice President Kamala Harris was in Pleasant Prairie Thursday afternoon to tout a new local investment in American manufacturing, backed by a new federal government program. Harris visited Sanmina’s 160,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Pleasant Prairie during a press conference announcing a new partnership between Sanmina and Finland-based telecommunications company Nokia.
Harris was joined by both companies’ chief executive officers, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, former lieutenant governor Mandela Barnes, commerce secretary Gina Raimondo, and several other state and local officials.
In 2024, Nokia will begin manufacturing broadband network electronics at Sanmina’s Pleasant Prairie manufacturing facility, located at 8701 100th St.
The partnership is expected to create approximately 200 new jobs. Nokia’s products are the first that will be used in the United States’ Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. The BEAD program aims to narrow the digital divide across the U.S. and contribute to economic growth and job creation. The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration in June announced $42 billion in state allocations for the BEAD program, including more than $1 billion for Wisconsin.
“Nokia has an unrivaled heritage of groundbreaking innovations, helping to develop and productize transistors, solar panels and satellite communications, among other devices,” said Pekka Lundmark, Nokia president and chief executive officer.
The Sanmina facility will be expanded to support production of Nokia’s products, which will include OLT optical modules, an “outdoor-hardened” optical terminal network, a small form factor OLT, and an optical line termination card used for a modular access node. Those products will be available next year, and Nokia will scale production to keep up with the needs of the BEAD program.
“We want to be here, and we want to grow. We don’t like to promise and bring a bunch of shovels and dig in the ground and then run away. We’re going to be here forever,” said Sanmina chairman and CEO Jure Sola. “I do believe the American worker is the best and most productive worker in the world.”
While explaining how the BEAD program came to life, Harris said it is a priority for both herself and President Joe Biden to bring manufacturing jobs back to America — one of the components of the BEAD program. A key component of the program is that the fiber optic products required for broadband expansion must be built in America.
“When President Biden and I took office, 800,000 people in Wisconsin and 30 million people across our country did not have access to high-speed internet,” said Harris. “President Biden and I are delivering on our promise to strengthen our economy by investing in working people, expanding domestic manufacturing, empowering small business owners, and rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure—today’s announcement is a direct result of this work.”
