PON revenue reaches record high

PON revenue, including both optical line terminals (OLTs) and optical networking terminals (ONTs), reached its second consecutive record high in third–quarter 2008, growing 16% sequentially and 64% over the year–ago period, reveals a new report from Dell'Oro Group (www.delloro.com).

“Third–quarter's strength came from both EPON and GPON,” explains Tam Dell'Oro, president of Dell'Oro Group. “EPON's growth was driven by next–generation network upgrades by NTT, Japan's largest service provider. GPON, driven by deployments for Verizon's FiOS service as well as increasing numbers of smaller deployments around the world, had even stronger growth with revenue increasing more than five times that of the year–ago period,” he says.

“Despite the weakening economy, we are still forecasting annual GPON revenue to grow more than 50% in 2009,” Dell'Oro adds.

The report also shows Mitsubishi remained the leader in the overall PON market, benefiting by being the primary EPON supplier to NTT for its NGN build out. Alcatel–Lucent retained its number two status in the overall PON market and number one for GPON largely due to its status as Verizon's primary supplier of GPON as well as having a number of other deployments in Europe and Asia.

The Dell'Oro Group's Quarterly Access Report tracks manufacturers' revenue, average selling prices, and port/unit shipments for cable, DSL, and PON equipment.