100G spending rose to nearly $2B in 2013, says Infonetics

The service provider community's ongoing movement to deploy 100G in 2013 drove up the segment to nearly $2 billion, according to a new Infonetics Research report.

"100G spending worldwide in 2013 was breathtaking, with total port shipments tripling during the year," said Andrew Schmitt, principal analyst for optical at Infonetics. "This equates to around $2 billion in spending related to 100G."

Schmitt added that 100G represented nearly 20 percent of all WDM spending. The overall WDM segment saw its seventh straight quarter of year-over-year growth, up 8 percent.

Much of the 100G optical revenue is being driven by five companies: Alcatel-Lucent, Ciena, Cisco, Huawei and Infinera.

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), for example, reported that first-quarter 2014 100G shipments represented 30 percent of total WDM line card shipments compared with 19 percent in the first quarter of 2013.

Infinera also reported that 100G was strong in the first quarter with overall revenues rising sequentially to $142.8 million. However, the vendor reportedly suffered a setback in January when it was passed over for a large-scale long-haul optical contract with Verizon (NYSE: VZ).

However compelling the 100G opportunity is, global optical spending declined as legacy SONET/SDH spending continues to slide. Optical network hardware revenue, including WDM and SONET/SDH, declined 2 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2014, while total optical spending was roughly flat.

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