PON revenue surges 240% in 2003, worldwide optical hardware revenue increases 16% in Q4, according to Infonetics Research
March 1, 2004 San Jose, CA--Worldwide optical network hardware revenue was up 16% in 4Q03, but down 15% for the year at $8.4 billion, while passive optical networking (PON) revenue surged 240% in 2003 to $182 million, according to Infonetics Research's quarterly worldwide market share and forecast services, Optical Network Hardware and PON Hardware.
"The fourth quarter of 2003 was a great quarter for optical hardware, as this segment enjoyed the benefits of an especially big year-end service provider capex flush," said Michael Howard, principal analyst and co-founder of Infonetics Research. "Metro SONET/SDH and WDM were strong in 4Q03, being driven by increased corporate network traffic, storage networking, and service provider wireless network backhaul.
"PON is growing rapidly in Asia Pacific, especially Japan, where hundreds of thousands of subscribers are using EPON and APON," Howard added. "PON is slowly lifting off in North America, mostly in new home builds and in neighborhoods where the copper plant is being rehabilitated. We expect PON to continue expanding rapidly through 2007."
Below are some 2003 and 4Q03 market highlights:
• Alcatel leads the worldwide optical network hardware market in 4Q03; Fujitsu and Nortel tie for second.
• Worldwide 2003 metro WDM revenue was up 34% from 2002, showing a healthy, growing metro WDM market.
• Nortel and ADVA remain number-one and number-two in the worldwide metro WDM market in 2003.
• SONET/SDH is the mainstay optical technology, making up 69% of worldwide optical equipment sales in 2003.
• Intelligent optical network hardware makes up 82% of all optical network hardware revenue in 2003; legacy hardware is projected to decline to 1% by 2007.
• Metro revenue makes up 67% of all optical network hardware revenue in 2003, long haul 33%; this near 2:1 ratio will move toward 70:30 over the next four years.
The Optical Network Hardware and PON Hardware reports tracks SONET/SDH, CWDM/DWDM, and PON hardware. Forecasts and regional market share are updated quarterly and cover all regions (worldwide, North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific, CALA). Companies tracked in this service include ADVA, Alcatel, CIENA, Cisco, Fujitsu, ECI-Lightscape, Lucent, Lumentis, Marconi, Movaz, NEC, Nortel, Siemens, Tellabs, and many others. The table of contents for the most recent report is available on the company's website.