Despite Blips, Global PON Revenues Grow

A 1Q11 preliminary vendor marketshare report from Infonetics Research says passive optical networking (PON) gear sales are up for the most part, but sales of DSL ports are down.

The research firm tracks the following companies: ADTRAN, Alcatel-Lucent, Allied Telesis, Calix, Ciena, Corecess, Dasan, ECI, Enablence, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Huawei, Iskratel, Millinet, Motorola, NEC, Nokia Siemens, Samsung, Sumitomo, Tellabs, UTStarcom, Zhone, ZTE, ZyXEL and others.

"The major story in the broadband aggregation equipment market this quarter is the dramatic drop in DSL ports in China, which points to operators there continuing their dramatic shift away from DSL,” notes Jeff Heynen, the group’s directing analyst for broadband access. “The first quarter is typically one of the slowest for DSL, but the seasonal effect was worsened by Chinese operators’ continued shift away from traditional DSLAM deployments. Also, voice ports (DS0s) on FTTB/MXU MSAPs in Asia dropped significantly, signaling a shift away from adding voice lines to simply installing DSL ports.”

Having said that, the preliminary report shows that, despite the sequential declines, the DSL equipment market is up 36 percent year over year (1Q11 compared with 1Q10).

More snippets from the report:

•    The DSL, PON, and Ethernet FTTH equipment market reversed its small 4Q10 gain with a 2-percent decline in 1Q11, dipping to $1.96 billion worldwide.
•    The overall market’s decline was led by a double-digit sequential drop in DSL infrastructure spending in all regions.
•    The worldwide PON market jumped 20 percent in 1Q11 compared with 4Q10, surpassing the $1 billion threshold for the first time ever.
•    Driven by the Chinese operators and sustained growth in Japan and Korea, worldwide EPON spending was up a remarkable 46 percent in 1Q11compared with 4Q10.
•    The North American GPON market should regain its momentum during the next few quarters as Verizon reinitiates its FiOS buildout and broadband stimulus deployments continue.
•    Calix’s Ethernet FTTH equipment revenue shot up 222 percent during 1Q11 as the company capitalized on broadband stimulus grants to help U.S. carriers roll out Ethernet FTTH networks.
•    Huawei and ZTE benefited the most from China’s spending on EPON and GPON equipment during 1Q11, despite being equally hammered by the decline in spending on DSL equipment.