Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) expanded its cable profile this week with a move designed to help the cable industry deliver more gigabit broadband services. The Finnish company announced its intent to acquire cable access specialist Gainspeed , which has developed technology that it believes will improve the performance of hybrid fiber-coaxial networks. (See Nokia Swings Deal for Gainspeed.)

The decision is a way for Nokia to show it's serious about working with the cable industry, but it's also a boon for Gainspeed's technology, which now has a greater chance of adoption with the resources of Nokia behind it. Gainspeed has only been around since 2012, and while it has garnered fans in the industry, cable operators are notoriously squeamish about deploying solutions from startup companies, fearing that the solutions won't scale.

Prior to the acquisition announcement, Gainspeed had raised $55 million through a series of investment rounds. The company has not announced any commercial customers, but WideOpenWest Holdings LLC (WOW) now says it's been testing the Gainspeed solution and preparing to deploy it in conjunction with a strategy to deliver gigabit services.

Nokia wasn't the only vendor making gigabit news this week. Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. announced at ANGACOM that it's launched the industry's first HFC access network solution capable of delivering speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second. The solution supports DOCSIS 3.1 for cable using a distributed CCAP platform, and 10G PON for fiber. Huawei's unlikely to get any love for the technology in the US, however. The US government recently launched a security probe into Huawei's trading practices, and operators in the US market are already heavily incented not to use Huawei equipment in their networks. (See Huawei Launches Industry’s First 10Gbit/s HFC Access Platform and US Probe Into Huawei Threatens Trade War.)