Research & Analytics…

OTI Takes Cableco Data-Capping To Task
The Open Technology Institute (OTI) took issue with the cable industry’s claim that capping the amount of broadband data its customers can use each month is based on fairness — those who use more should pay more, while those who use less should receive discounted prices. According to a recent OTI paper, the intention behind data caps “is to increase already high profits at the expense of the public and innovation.” The paper argues cablecos paid off their fixed network construction costs long ago and, as a result, they now enjoy "considerable profitability" on broadband service. In addition, it states the meager discounts on the table for the low-capped plans are dwarfed by the ability of cable companies to provide a lot of uncapped Internet service at "incredibly low" costs.
 
Optical Networking Revenues Continue To Struggle
There’s good news and bad news on the optical-network-hardware sales front. According to Infonetics Research, this market rose 2 percent in 4Q12 from 3Q12, but it was down 13 percent from 4Q11. For 2012 as a whole, optical-equipment spending was down 10 percent worldwide. Alcatel-Lucent, which posted its lowest-ever optical revenue results in 3Q12, bounced back in 4Q12, up 29 percent due to higher spending in EMEA. Ciena‘s revenue was down sequentially and year over year, but the company grew shipments of its 40G and 100G equipment and now is ramping production of a new, single-carrier 100G product. Finally, Infinera reported a strong 4Q12, attributed to sales of its new DTN-X OTN switching platform. But it could be worse, Infonetics notes: The SONET/SDH optical segment essentially was dealt a death blow in 2012 as global legacy capex fell 30 percent.