Dittberner updates Q2 2008 FTTx numbers

FTTH shipments jumped 22% to almost 2.7 million ports in 2Q 2008, which represents a 56% year–over–year increase, according to a new report from Dittberner (www.dittberner.com/), DSL, FTTH and FTTB/LAN Shipment Analysis. With this increase, growth is on target to reach 11.6 million ports shipped in 2008, which is a little higher than the 11.5 million ports Dittberner forecasted in January 2008.

The Japanese market showed its strength and took up some slack in the North American market. NTT and KDDI added almost 1 million subscribers in the quarter, which was more than half of all new FTTH subscribers, says the report. This allowed Mitsubishi and Sumitomo to grow their market share.

Sumitomo reclaimed second place among vendors from Tellabs because of the strong growth in Japan and because of Verizon's transition away from Tellabs' BPON products. Alcatel–Lucent, which is Verizon's main GPON supplier, and Nokia Siemens, the main supplier of GEPON/EPON equipment to Korea Telecom, rounded out the top–five spots.

The Japanese market is entering a more mature stage, evidenced by the increased number of suppliers of CPE. In the early stages of an access market, the CPE and the CO equipment tend to be supplied by the same manufacturer. The CPE may eventually become available directly from a consumer electronics store, notes the report.

Japan is the largest installed base, with 7.6 million homes and 2.25 million apartments connected with fiber. Japan's strong growth propelled EPON's increase in market share to 62%, while BPON and GPON both decreased. Point–to–point Ethernet also saw strong growth, and combined CO and CPE ports shipped exceeded both BPON and GPON port shipments, bolstering the argument that PON is not always the best choice for a service provider. Cisco is the leader in P2P Ethernet, along with Ericsson, PacketFront, and Iskratel. Alcatel–Lucent has recently entered the market.

Dittberner's Broadband Study, an ongoing market research service updated quarterly, tracks the broadband xDSL and FTTx vendors and their potential.