After a slow start to the year and five preceding quarters of lackluster sales, 2Q13 global optical networking (ON) revenue grew decidedly, according to global analyst firm Ovum. Results of US$4.08 billion for 2Q13 were 29 percent higher than they were in 1Q13 and 7 percent higher than the year-ago quarter. Most significantly, annualized spending grew to US$14.9 billion.
Some highlights from Ovum:
- ZTE had its strongest quarter ever, solidifying its position behind Huawei as the second-ranked ON vendor.
- Annualized spending in Asia-Pacific, at over US$6bn, hit an all-time high.
- Demand in North America was also up significantly, benefitting Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Ciena, and Fujitsu.
- Growth in 100G remains a particular bright spot as annualized revenues exceeded US$1.6bn for the first time ever.
- Ovum is forecasting modest two percent growth this year to US$14.9bn.
- Annualized revenues for CPO gear surpassed US$6bn for in the quarter (42 percent of total ON spending) and 100G port shipments in 2Q13 grew 61 percent, surpassing US$1.6bn for the 4-quarter period.
- ROADM and OTN switching were also up strongly from the year-ago quarter.
“We always expect an uptick going into the second calendar quarter. However, sales of over US$4bn help dispel some of the fear generated by the slow start in 1Q13,” says Ron Kline, network infrastructure analyst at Ovum. “100G revenue growth is pumping a lot of enthusiasm— and revenue— into the market and increasing the revenues for converged packet optical (CPO) and optical transport network (OTN) switching gear.”
“We’ve been hearing operators say ‘no more SDH/SONET spending’ for years. This is misleading, because what they really mean is no more spending for platforms specific to just that technology. They are eager to deploy CPO products that provide Ethernet and SDH/SONET on a converged platform,” said Kline.
http://ovum.com/press_releases/us14-9bn-global-on-market-rebounds-decisively-in-2q13/
