According to the Dell'Oro Group, passive optical network (PON) market revenue rebounded in the first quarter of 2018 after five consecutive quarters of decline. The majority of the market growth occurred in China where broadband subscriber growth drove optical networking terminal (ONT) shipments to a record level.
"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. Huawei was the primary beneficiary of the surge, capturing the largest ONT market share," said Alam Tamboli, senior analyst at Dell'Oro.
"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. 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."