PON Market Grows in 2Q09 With Massive Chinese Purchases

CAMPBELL, CA – The PON equipment market recovered in the second quarter, thanks mainly to China. A new report from Infonetics Research says that China Telecom’s ongoing FTTB rollout and the kickoff of China Unicom's massive 11-million-line EPON FTTB/FTTN deployment accounted for a huge increase in EPON spending in China, buoying the worldwide PON market.

Highlights of the Infonetics report:

• Worldwide PON equipment revenue, including BPON, EPON, GPON and WDM-PON, rose 16 percent sequentially in 2Q09, to $584.1 million.


• The number of PON ONT port shipments (1.25G EPON, 2.5G EPON, GPON, and WDM-PON) is forecast to reach 24.5 million by 2013.


• GPON equipment sales are expected to pick up in China as China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom expand their trials to full deployments to support FTTH.


• The worldwide Ethernet FTTH equipment market roared back to life in 2Q09, jumping 108 percent to $150.5 million, led by deployments by the United Arab Emirates’ Etisalat, Holland’s Reggefiber, and Saudi Telecom.


• In 2Q09, Huawei eked past Alcatel-Lucent and Motorola to take the lead in worldwide GPON revenue share, in a market that has experienced vendor leaderboard changes rarely seen in equipment markets.