FTTx modules and components market to surpass $1.5B in 2011, says CIR

August 17, 2006 Charlottesville, VA -- According to a newly released report from CIR, "FTTx: The Opportunities for Components Suppliers," the market for modules and components used in FTTx networks will grow from an estimated $629 million this year to over $1.5 billion in 2011.

The FTTx business has reemerged in the past year as carriers expand their roll outs of fiber-based networks resulting in new opportunities for the components sector says CIR's new report. On the active components side of the business, which includes products such as transceivers, transmitters, and receivers, the market is projected to reach close to $800 million in revenues by 2011. CIR believes the opportunity to be significant enough that larger manufacturers will likely be drawn to this space, which currently lacks dominant suppliers. On the passives side of the business, PON splitters, couplers and amplifiers are projected to grow to a total $438 million in 2011. For the electronics used in PON, CIR projects revenues of almost $300 million in 2011.

CIR's report also noted the following:

• The FTTx components market will remain highly price sensitive. Firms with proprietary manufacturing technologies that result in high yields and those that deploy optical integration will remain competitive while maintaining margins.
  
• New markets will soon begin to emerge for novel components that cater to the needs of WDM PONs and PONs operating at both 2.5 and 10 Gbits/sec.
  
• FTTx presents economies of scale for component manufacturers with the resources. Ultimately the smaller firms that are currently visible in the market will likely be bought up or left to niche status.
  
• For electronic chip firms focused on this space there will be growing opportunities to supply high-layer chips that better enable new services such as VoIP and IPTV, as well as additional security.
  
• FTTx subscriber growth over the forecast period is projected to be robust with 125 million new subscribers projected over the forecast period.
  

The new report forecasts and analyzes the markets for optical components used in emerging fiber-to-the-x networks. Products covered include OLT and ONU transceivers, splitters, amplifiers, couplers, and Layer 1 and MAC electronic devices. Components for all the main types of FTTx networks including BPON, GPON, EPON, GEPON and point-to-point networks are covered. In addition, the report projects the components requirements of emerging FTTx networks including WPONs, 10-Gbit/sec PONs, and WDM overlay networks. The report includes volume and value forecasts for the products listed above broken out by type of network.