Week in research: 40G, 100G transceiver shipments rise; Utilities hone in on M2M

100G transceiver market to surpass 40G: In its latest 10G/40G/100G Optical Transceivers Market Size and Forecast, Infonetics says that by 2013, 100G will surpass 40G product growth. The research firm says that pricing for 100G products will compare favorably to 40G. Overall, the global 10G, 40G, and 100G optical transceiver market is forecast to grow to $2.6 billion by 2015, more than doubling from $1.2 billion in 2010. The 40G and 100G segments in aggregate will make up 40 percent of total optical transceiver revenue by 2015. From a near term perspective, optical transceiver market revenue was up 35 percent in the first half of 2011 from the first half of 2010. "Tunable XFP optical transceivers were the standout product in the first half of 2011, with shipments up 59% over the previous 6-month period, putting the category on track to increase 200% in 2011 over 2010," said Andrew Schmitt, directing analyst for optical at Infonetics Research. "Multiple suppliers are now in the marketplace and that appears to be the catalyst customers needed to begin adoption." News release

Infonetics optical transceiver market 2011-2015

Utilities hone in on M2M communications: Electric and gas utilities' increased reliance on the wireless network for smart grid deployments will help drive more M2M communication node shipments. A Pike Research study says that the ongoing adoption of traditional wireless networks will drive the shipment of 73 million wireless-based M2M nodes for smart grid applications between 2011 and 2020. By 2015, the research firm forecasts that global unit shipments will peak at 10.7 million units annually in 2015, coinciding with the peak in the buildout of neighborhood area networks (NANs) for smart meter connectivity, before unit volumes gradually decline to 8.2 million nodes annually by 2020. During the forecast period, revenue from the sale of cellular communication nodes to utilities will reach $1.9 billion. Release

Making the FTTH/B case work: In 2010, more than 10 percent of the world's broadband households had a Fiber to the Home/Business connection, and this figure will more than double by 2016, says Pyramid Research. Of course, deploying a FTTH network offers both a new opportunity to deliver higher speed services and applications and a financial risk. "Capex per home continues to be very high for FTTH, and operators will have to improve the other metrics--from product attractiveness, customer satisfaction and ability to meet future demand to operational efficiency, ARPU, penetration of homes passed and revenue-generating services--to make the FTTH investment a financial success," says Ozgur Aytar, research director and practice leader for broadband and media at Pyramid. Release

FTTX prices beat out DSL: In its new "The Cost of Fiber-Based Broadband" study, Strategy Analytics says that fiber-based broadband offerings not only deliver higher speeds, but they are priced much lower than traditional DSL services. Release