Dell’Oro: Optical Transport sector grew 6% in 2019

The Optical Transport equipment market, driven by WDM system sales, grew 6 percent in 2019, according to a new report from Dell’Oro Group. Two equipment manufacturers—ZTE and Ciena—increased their optical revenue the most, securing additional market share gains this year.

“The optical equipment market shined fairly bright this year,” said Jimmy Yu, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “Considering the Optical Transport market hasn’t posted a revenue growth rate greater than 4 percent in the past seven years, this was really a welcome surprise, brought on by continued demand for WDM systems across all regions. The most revenue contribution came from two regions: Europe, Middle East and Africa or EMEA for short and Asia Pacific,” added Yu.

Additional highlights from the 4Q 2019 Optical Transport Quarterly Report:

• ZTE’s market share increased two percentage points in 2019 due to a strong sales recovery from last year’s U.S. ban. This lifted ZTE’s share across all regions with the exception of North America where ZTE no longer has meaningful revenue.
• Ciena’s market share increased one percentage point in 2019 driven by the company’s rising sales in data center interconnect applications, driven by the success of its Disaggregated Transponder Unit or stackable systems sales.