North America and Latin America were the only optical network hardware markets to show year-on-year growth in the first quarter of 2022, according to Dell’Oro Group. However, their collective strength was enough to enable the space to show a 2% increase over the year-ago quarter, the market research firm states in its newly released 1Q 2022 Optical Transport Quarterly Report.
Sales of optical transport systems grew 25% in North America and 19% in Latin America during the first three months of this year, according to the report. “Growth in Americas more than offset declines in other regions,” commented Jimmy Yu, vice president at Dell’Oro Group. “There was definitely strong demand for optical equipment in North America and Latin America, and vendors were able to deliver products even with component shortages and supply issues hampering them. Unfortunately, due to reasons that included the war in Ukraine, COVID lockdowns, supply problems, and weaker currency, optical revenue declined year-over-year in all of the other regions, including Europe, Asia Pacific, and China.”
Those declines were in the mid-single-digit range, Yu and Dell’Oro report. Component shortage and supply chain problems caused the year-over-year worldwide optical market growth rate to miss earlier expectations of 6% growth, the market research firm stated.
Companies that benefitted from the uptick in Americas spending included Ciena, Fujitsu, Infinera, and Cisco. The four companies accounted for nearly 80% of revenues in the region in 1Q22.
Dell’Oro’s Optical Transport Quarterly Report contains analysis of the market, including tables covering manufacturers’ revenue, average selling prices, and unit shipments (by speed including 100 Gbps, 200 Gbps, 400 Gbps, and 800 Gbps). The report tracks DWDM long haul, WDM metro, multiservice multiplexers (SONET/SDH), optical switches, optical packet platforms, data center interconnect (metro and long haul), and disaggregated WDM.
For related articles, visit the Business Topic Center.
For more information on high-speed transmission systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.
To stay abreast of optical communications technology, subscribe to Lightwave’s Enabling Technologies Newsletter.