Worldwide PON market almost $1 billion in 2006

April 4, 2007
APRIL 4, 2007 -- Worldwide PON equipment sales grew 71% for the year, says Infonetics Research.

APRIL 4, 2007 -- Worldwide PON equipment sales sequentially grew 12% in the fourth quarter of 2006 and 71% for the full year, reaching $308 million and $965 million, respectively, says Infonetics Research (search for Infonetics) in its latest "PON and FTTH Equipment and Subscribers" report.

BPON equipment sales are tanking while EPON and GPON sales are growing rapidly, with GPON equipment revenue and ports forecast to grow at triple-digit 5-year compound annual growth rates between 2006 and 2010, says Infonetics. Healthy EPON and GPON sales will continue fueling growth in the overall PON market, which is forecast to reach nearly $2.4 billion in 2010.

"Service providers of all shapes and sizes are pushing fiber deeper into their access networks to support the demand for video, online gaming, P2P networking, and other bandwidth-intensive applications. GPON and EPON for both FTTH and fiber-to-the-business (FTTB) applications continue to increase, as does Ethernet FTTH, which has become the preferred technology for smaller North American operators as well as for cities, municipalities, and a growing number of competitive operators in EMEA," said Jeff Heynen, analyst at Infonetics Research.

Report highlights include:


  • FTTH PON equipment revenue, which represents 60% of the market, grew 72% in 2006, and FTTB equipment revenue, representing 40% of the market, grew 69%.
  • Worldwide Ethernet FTTH equipment revenue jumped 58% and port shipments jumped 54% in 2006. Both will grow in the double digits annually through 2010.
  • After more than doubling between 2004 and 2005, worldwide PON subscribers nearly doubled again in 2006 to 6.5 million. Their numbers are expected to swell to over 40 million in 2010.
  • Worldwide FTTH subscribers grew 86% in 2006 to about 7.5 million, and are forecast to climb to almost 47 million in 2010, fueled by strong growth in both PON FTTH and Ethernet FTTH subscriber numbers.
  • Mitsubishi maintains its strong lead in worldwide EPON revenue and port market share; Sumitomo is second, Fujitsu third.
  • Tellabs maintains its commanding lead in worldwide BPON revenue and port market share; Hitachi is second, Motorola third.

Infonetics' report tracks PON equipment revenue and ports, including BPON, EPON, GPON OLTs and ONTs, plus an FTTH versus FTTB split; Ethernet FTTH equipment, including CPE and service provider equipment; total FTTH equipment including FTTH CPE and FTTH non-CPE; and PON, PON FTTH, Ethernet FTTH, and FTTH subscribers.

Sample data is available from the company's website.

Visit Infonetics Research

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