Market research firm Infonetics Research says that carriers consider Ciena Corp. (NASDAQ:CIEN) the top vendor of 40- and 100-Gbps transmission systems, next-generation packet-optical transport systems, and optical transmission and switching systems in general. The market research firm reached this conclusion based on the results of a survey of carriers worldwide.
The results of the survey are contained in the recently released November 2011 Optical Equipment Features and Vendor Leadership: Global Service Provider Survey.
Ciena has reason to be pleased, but carriers also hold other optical platform vendors in high regard. For example, Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, Infinera, and Nokia Siemens Networks also scored well with survey respondents, Infonetics says.
Of course, prestige isn’t enough to please shareholders. The survey reports Infinera and Nokia Siemens Networks were the only vendors being evaluated for future contract awards by more customers than those on their current customer list. Meanwhile, in a separate announcement, Infonetics revealed that Huawei stretched its optical networking equipment market share lead in the third quarter of 2011 (see “Infonetics: Huawei leads weak third quarter 2011 for optical network equipment”).
The survey, in addition to measuring vendor popularity, also attempts to unearth data on the future needs of respondents in areas such as 40G/100G and next-generation packet-optical transport systems. explains
"One of the surprising results of this survey is that control plane features are a critical area of differentiation, named by more service providers than cost as one of the three most important features that sets vendors apart from others when evaluating an optical supplier," says Andrew Schmitt, directing analyst for optical at Infonetics Research.
Meanwhile, Infonetics reports that factors such as service and support and vendor stability are not as influential as some optical equipment vendors expected.
To conduct the survey, Infonetics says it interviewed an international collection of 10G/40G/100G optical transmission and switching equipment purchase decision makers at 18 incumbent carriers, competitive operators, and mobile operators in September and October 2011. The respondents collectively represent 22% of the world's public carrier revenue and 20% of the world's carrier capex, Infonetics asserts.
For more information on high-speed transmission systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyers Guide.