Adva, Ciena and Nokia gain optical share on metro 100G, colocation growth, says research firm

Adva, Ciena, and Nokia all saw positive gains in optical spending as more service providers begin to roll out 100G in the metro network and interconnecting data centers.

Cignal AI reported that global spending on optical network equipment (SONET/SDH, WDM, and Submarine LTE) grew 10 percent year over year, with all global regions showing increases in varying degrees.

In North America, Ciena, Nokia, Adva and Coriant all recorded positive year-over-year results with cloud and colocation customers driving large revenue gains.

RELATED: Infinera’s Q3 revenue dips 29 percent to $185M as customers hit long-haul, metro spending limits

Adva Optical, Ciena and Nokia saw gains during the recent quarter.

Cignal Al noted that Ciena and Nokia shipped record numbers of 200G-capable ports, mostly to cloud and colocation customer purchases. While Ciena won’t report its latest earnings results until Dec. 8, the research firm said that the colocation segment accounted for nearly 20 percent of Ciena’s optical revenue this year.

Nokia reported third-quarter optical networking revenues of $351 million, up from $345 million in the same period a year ago.

Driven by growing acceptance of its optical equipment for mobile backhaul and data center interconnect (DCI), Adva Optical’s third-quarter revenue climbed to what the vendor said was a “record high” of $171 million. Specifically, Adva said the results reflect a 30.4 percent year-on-year increase due to growing acceptance for its products to address connectivity solutions for DCI applications.

From a regional perspective, Cignal Al said that North America grew “more modestly” year over year than some of the other regions as major cable MSO’s spending declined and large gains offset revenue declines at both Fujitsu and Infinera.

Infinera said that North America, which made up 56 percent of the vendor’s third-quarter total revenue, declined sequentially 38 percent as customers pause spend or shifted it to other portions of the network. The company reported that total revenues dropped 29 percent year-over-year to $185 million.

In EMEA, Cignal Al reported that Huawei led year-over-year growth as its “strong performance continued to mask declines in revenue for other equipment vendors in the region.”

While Huawei saw gains in EMEA, other vendors reported a sharp decline in carrier spending. Infinera reported that third-quarter EMEA revenue declined 20 percent sequentially due to slow long-haul spending offsetting what it said were steady metro results.

Similar to earlier quarters, optical equipment spending in China rose over 20 percent year-over-year as coherent 100G deployment marched forward. Chinese equipment companies anticipate further growth through 2017 as carriers get ready to accelerate WDM deployments.