Metro WDM takes a hit in North America says Dell'Oro Group

Nov. 20, 2014
Demand for optical transport equipment in North American declined 13% year-over-year in the third quarter of 2014, according to a newly published report by market research firm Dell'Oro Group.

Demand for optical transport equipment in North American declined 13% year-over-year in the third quarter of 2014, according to a newly published report by market research firm Dell'Oro Group.

The results echo those recently published by Infonetics Research (see "3Q14 optical network equipment spend down 5% year-on-year says Infonetics").

"Optical equipment demand was quite robust in North America leading up to the third quarter," said Jimmy Yu, vice president of optical transport research at Dell'Oro Group. "Within one quarter, however, the optical market took a sudden and negative turn as major tier-one North American service providers reduced deployments and cut spending on transport equipment."

The reduction in optical purchases in the quarter was likely due to necessary network architecture decisions, he says. The remainder of this year and next year may not be much brighter as one of the largest telecom operators, AT&T, intends to cut its capital spending in 2015, and is poised to refrain from certain network expansion until the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) clarifies its net neutrality policies, he added (see "FCC wants AT&T GigaPower FTTH details").

The majority of optical transport equipment revenue decline in North America was due to a 17% year-over-year decline in WDM for metro applications, the report found.

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