Between 2002 and 2006 European service provider expenditures for optical network equipment will grow 103% from EUR3.1bn to EUR6.3bn and router and switch expenditures 197% from EUR1.5bn to EUR4.5bn, according to the report Service Provider Networks: Access, Routing, Switching, and Optical - Europe 2002 from Infonetics Research.
"As in the US, the metro market continues to be the bright spot in Europe," says co-author and market analyst Richard Webb. "Metro expenditures will show strong growth in 2003, and hold a steady growth pattern from 2004 to 2006, as service providers build metro networks to deliver new services , such as storage, tiered QoS, security, VoIP, wireless data, and manage increasing traffic patterns and broadband aggregation."
Kevin Mitchell, co-author and directing analyst at Infonetics, added, "Most respondents see broadband as a platform for delivering additional services, which add incremental revenue streams to their broadband undertaking and help alleviate their prime business challenges of revenue growth and profitability.
"All respondents who offer broadband services offer additional services over their broadband connections, with security and storage back-up being the most popular."