Service providers' ongoing movement to deploy fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) services is helping drive up FTTx optical component revenues.
A new Ovum report forecasts that FTTx optical components revenue will exceed $1 billion this year, up from $953 million in 2014. The research firm said that the demand for PON equipment--particularly optical line terminals (OLTs) and optical network terminals (ONT)--from aggressive carriers in China are driving the FTTx optics market to "record levels."
Total OLT transceivers are forecast to reach 6.5 million in 2015, up 19 percent from 2014. Meanwhile, next-gen OLT transceivers are forecast to represent just over 12 percent of the total OLT transceiver market in 2020, with 10G EPON OLTs representing the largest segment within next-gen PON.
Likewise, the total ONT transceiver/BOSA and next-gen ONT transceiver/BOSA are also poised for new growth. Ovum forecast that the total ONT transceiver/BOSA market is forecast to exceed 71 million in 2015, an increase of 18 percent from 2014. Next-gen ONT transceivers/BOSAs are forecast to represent just over 9 percent of the total ONT transceiver/BOSA market in 2020 with 10/1 and 10/10 EPON ONTs representing the largest segment within next-gen PON.
"Numerous positive factors are driving the FTTx optics market to new levels, including FTTH network deployments by China Mobile and the continued network builds by China Telecom and China Unicom," said Julie Kunstler, principal analyst in Ovum's intelligent networks and components team and author of the report, in a release.
While China is clearly leading the aggressive FTTP build out pace, network deployments are also starting to rise in North America with a host of traditional telcos, cable MSOs (Comcast and Cox), and Google Fiber (NASDAQ: GOOG) rolling out services in targeted markets. Other regions that are deploying FTTP including Europe, Middle East and smaller deployments in South and Central America and Africa will also play a role in driving continued growth in FTTx optics.
The only issue that could potentially dampen the forecast could be if Chinese service providers slowed their FTTx deployments. Despite that fear, Ovum says that the entry of China Mobile into the FTTx segment will have an impact by luring existing wireless customers onto its new wireline broadband network over which it could offer other services such as video.
For more:
- see the release
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