The second quarter of 2012 saw a 5% growth in revenues for the broadband aggregation equipment market, according to Infonetics Research. In its new 2Q12 PON, FTTH, and DSL Aggregation Equipment and Subscribers report, the market research firm says that it was a particularly good quarter for PON in general and GPON in particular.
“Stimulus-based broadband deployments and Verizon’s continued purchase of optical network terminals are finally starting to move the needle in North America, where spending on GPON equipment surpassed the $100 million mark for the first time since 2010,” says Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband access and video at Infonetics Research. “China posted its second largest PON quarter on record, thanks to both new and ongoing projects at Big 3 operators China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Mobile.”
While the activity in China certainly helped Huawei retain its market share lead, Alcatel-Lucent benefited most strongly. Thanks to wins at China Telecom and China Unicom (see, for example, "Alcatel-Lucent wins Broadband China deal extension for China Telecom"), the company elbowed its way past ZTE into second place on the market share list.
Total broadband aggregation equipment sales reached $1.72 billion in 2Q12, according to the report. However, the market will be challenged to match last year’s record-setting activity. For example, despite being up 5% from the previous quarter, 2Q12 sales were 8% smaller than those in the year-ago quarter.
The quarterly PON, FTTH, and DSL Aggregation report provides worldwide and regional market size, select vendor market share, forecasts, and analysis for 1.25G, 2.5G, and 10G EPON; 2.5G and 10G GPON; FTTH; FTTB; PON; and DSL aggregation equipment. The report also tracks FTTH, FTTB+LAN, and DSL subscribers.