Reversing a five-quarter losing streak, sales of PON gear grew during the first quarter of 2018, according to a recently published report from Dell’Oro Group. Not surprisingly, a pickup in demand for optical network terminals (ONTs) in China accounted for most of the good news, says the market research firm.
“China added over 11 million new broadband subscribers in 1Q18, and network operators such as China Mobile purchased large volumes of ONTs to connect those customers to high-speed internet services,” commented Alam Tamboli, senior analyst at Dell’Oro Group. “Huawei was the primary beneficiary of the surge, capturing the largest ONT market share.”
Tamboli expects the excitement to be short lived, however. “While 2018 may be off to a great start for the PON market, we expect demand to soften for rest of the year as China Mobile is expected to add subscribers at a significantly lower rate,” he explained. “Huawei and ZTE, the top ranked PON vendors, are working to diversify their customer base in anticipation of reduced demand in China, as operators in China accounted for over four-fifths of each company’s PON revenue in 1Q18.”
The Dell’Oro Group Broadband Access Quarterly Report provides data on approximately 25 vendors as well as the market they serve. The report includes tables covering manufacturers’ revenue, average selling prices, and port/unit shipments for cable, DSL, and PON equipment. The covered systems include cable modem termination systems (CMTS), Digital Subscriber Line access multiplexers (DSLAMs) by technology, Gfast, and PON optical line terminals (OLTs) by technology. Customer premises gear tracked includes cable and DSL technology and PON ONTs.
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