October 12, 2005 San Jose, CA -- According to a report from Infonetics Research, worldwide metro Ethernet equipment revenue will more than double itself between 2004 and 2008, rising from $3.1 billion to $7.6 billion, and totaling almost $26 billion during the five-year period. Also during this period, the firm says that rates for metro Ethernet ports shipments will more than quadruple.
The firm sees Carrier Ethernet equipment sales as driving the Ethernet services market, which the firm says will jump 276% between 2005 and 2009, reaching $22.2 billion. The firm reports that carriers including SBC, BellSouth, Verizon, TWTelecom, BT, France Telecom, KT, NTT, AT&T, and others are lowering the price per bit for Ethernet bandwidth, helping to fuel demand for such bandwidth in all regions of the world.
"We added Carrier Ethernet switches and routers market share to our report this go-round, and not surprisingly, Cisco led in 2004 with almost half the worldwide revenue, followed by Riverstone and Alcatel," states Michael Howard, principal analyst for Infonetics Research. "We also created a new category, Ethernet Access Devices (EADs), to track products that solve problems associated with delivering Ethernet over various types of copper and fiber connections."
Howard calls EADs "an important and fast-growing segment of the metro Ethernet market," with a projected growth of 2,353% between 2004 and 2008, with revenues rising from $20 million to $492 million.
The report also sees worldwide carrier Ethernet switch and router revenue hitting $183 million in 2004, with growth rising to $2.6 billion in 2008, representing 34% of the metro Ethernet equipment market. The report reveals that Nortel was the worldwide revenue market share leader for both Ethernet-over-SONET/SDH and Ethernet-over-WDM equipment in 2004. However, according to the firm, with the exception of Cisco, a "shakeup in market share" is expected in 2005.
The "Metro Ethernet Equipment" report includes market size, market share, analysis, and forecasts through 2008 for all global regions, and tracks CLE and PLE revenue in categories including carrier Ethernet switches and routers, enterprise/metro Ethernet switches, enterprise/metro routers with Ethernet interfaces, Ethernet over SONET/SDH, RPR over fiber, Ethernet over WDM, and EADs.