PON equipment market to touch $2bn in 2009

CALIFORNIA, USA: Worldwide passive optical network (PON) equipment revenue increased 10 percent sequentially in 3Q09 to $523 million, following a 15 percent jump in 2Q09.

This is according to market research firm Infonetics Research's third quarter (3Q09) PON and FTTH Equipment and Subscribers market size and share report, which tracks Ethernet FTTH (fiber-to-the-home) equipment and passive optical network equipment, including BPON, EPON, GPON, and WDM-PON equipment split by FTTH and FTTB (fiber-to-the-building) applications.

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Jeff Heynen, directing analyst, broadband and video, Infonetics Research, said: “After just two slightly down quarters in late 2008 and early 2009, the PON equipment market is roaring back to health, led by strong performances by vendors in the Asia Pacific region, particularly China, Japan, South Korea, and now India."

"The biggest increases are coming from spending on EPON equipment in China to support China Telecom’s ongoing FTTB rollout and the early stages of China Unicom's massive 11 million-line EPON FTTB/FTTB deployment,” notes Heynen.

Report Highlights

GPON deployments were also up in 3Q09, mainly due to a major increase in GPON shipments to China Mobile and China Telecom.

Infonetics forecasts overall worldwide PON equipment revenue to top $2 billion in 2009 for the first time, and to more than double by 2013, when it will reach $4.2 billion.

In 3Q09, worldwide Ethernet FTTH equipment revenue decreased 29 percent sequentially, as municipal and competitive operators in EMEA and Chinese operators dramatically decreased their Ethernet FTTH rollouts.

Over the last four quarters, Huawei has increased its worldwide PON equipment market share by 20 points, and has led the market for the last three quarters.

The number of PON subscribers worldwide is expected to near the 10 million mark by the end of 2009.