More Fiber + More Data Consumption = More Testing

The consumer-driven need for speed and data bandwidth not only has spurred an increase in fiber deployments, it’s could spur increased spending on the test equipment needed to keep such fiber networks in check. Testing for insertion loss and bandwidth usage is vital to help ensure effective real-time operations, says Frost & Sullivan, and this presents the global fiber-optic test-equipment (FOTE) market “with immense growth opportunities” because operators need to become more proactive when it comes to locating and solving network glitches. The group says the FOTE market earned more than $584 million in 2011, and it predicts a rise to nearly $806 million in 2018. Technological advancements will facilitate real-time 40G and 100G network deployments in every sector, F&S adds, and this will require high fiber-optic performance, in turn encouraging more FOTE like better bit-error-rate (BER) testers as well as integrated and next-gen testing systems that will boost testing frequency while adding to market revenue.