North American optical transport market dips in Q3 2023
The North American optical transport equipment market dropped 4 percent year-over-year (Y/Y) in the third quarter. Dell’Oro said that the North American and Latin American regions declined in the third quarter due to a mixture of issues: excess inventory, worsening macro-conditions, fear of recession, and higher borrowing costs.
Jimmy Yu, VP at Dell’Oro Group, said the North American market is still in what many industry observers call a digestion phase.“The market dynamics are different in North America than other parts of the world because the supply chain and component crises resulted in a run for optical equipment,” they said. “Then when component supply improved, service providers started to receive more equipment than they needed, creating a pause in new orders and requests to move out deliveries into 2024.”
However, demand for the market outside the North American region improved for a third consecutive quarter, growing 6 percent year-over-year.
“The market dynamics were different in other regions for varying reasons, such as Covid policies slowing economic growth in some countries and war in others. Hence, service providers in these countries did not build inventory in early 2023,” Yu said.
Ciena, FiberHome, and Nokia each gained more than one percentage point of market share in the trailing fourth quarter period compared to a year ago.
The research firm said the worldwide optical transport market is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 3 percent, reaching $16 billion by 2024.
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About the Author
Sean BuckleySean Buckley
Sean is the Editor-in-Chief of Lightwave. He establishes and executes Lightwave's editorial strategy across its website, email newsletters, events, and other information products. Before coming to Lightwave in July 2023, he served as editor of Broadband Communities. Earlier, he served as senior editor of FierceTelecom and the editor of the former Telecommunications Magazine. He got his start in the optical industry in 1998 when he became the editor of enterprise and optical networks at Information Gatekeepers. He has a BA in English from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and lives in Dracut, Mass, with his wife, two sons, and his cat, Dove.
