Dell’Oro: Optical transport market exceeded $12 billion in 2010

[Updated] Worldwide optical market revenues grew to over $12 billion in 2010, due to a robust market demand for DWDM systems in both metro and core applications, says market research firm Dell’Oro Group in a newly published report.

“Demand for DWDM systems exceeded our expectations for the year,” said Jimmy Yu, senior director of optical transport research at Dell’Oro Group. “In particular, the growth of 40 and 100 Gbps DWDM wavelength or line card shipments was far greater than what we expected. In 2010, 40/100-Gbps wavelength shipments grew more than 160 percent. By the fourth quarter, these high-speed wavelengths contributed over 25 percent of total DWDM market revenues, and over 40 percent of long haul market revenues. We forecast this trend to continue in 2011.”

The report shows that the market leaders in DWDM and 40/100-Gbps wavelengths during 2010 and the fourth quarter were Alcatel-Lucent, Ciena, and Huawei. The majority of 40-Gbps wavelengths shipped in 2010 were DQPSK line cards, followed by DPSK, and then coherent DP-QPSK.

[Update] A source at Dell’Oro confirmed that, in the company's estimation, the optical market grew in 2010. This assessment differs from those of Infonetics Research and ACG Research, who assert that 2010 was a down year (see “Infonetics: Optical market grows in 4Q10, but finishes down vs. 2009”).

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