JANUARY 3, 2007 -- Fi-ra Photonics Co. Ltd., subsidiary of Ignis ASA (search for Ignis), has secured another fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) component contract in Korea, valued at more than $4 million. The components will be delivered during the first half of 2007.
"We are experiencing an impressive scale and speed of growth in Korea--one of the fastest growing FTTH markets in the world," says Ignis CEO Thomas Ramm. "We feel very comfortable with the strong position we have gained in Korea and, going forward, we are confident we will further accelerate the growth and expansion of our business," he says.
In 2006, Korea Telecom (search for Korea Telecom) continued the rollout of its new and rapidly expanding passive optical network (PON). Fi-ra Photonics was the major provider of splitters for this deployment. This year, Korea Telecom claims it will go nationwide with its FTTH expansion, rolling out between 800,000 and 1 million PON lines across the country.
Fi-ra also has been chosen as the preferred supplier of splitters for this expansion project by Dasan Network, one of the three qualified system suppliers to Korea Telecom. Dasan Network is owned 51% by Siemens.
The contract from Dasan Networks corresponds to 400,000 + lines to be implemented during the first six months of 2007. The majority of this rollout will be on the current GE-PON (search for GE-PON) standard and the remainder on the even higher bandwidth standard, WDM-PON (search for WDM-PON). Ignis says it is one of very few component suppliers with products for all the PON standards.
"The FTTH market continues to escalate and beat growth estimates," says Ramm, "and as we are watching the aggressive growth of FTTH lines in Korea, we expect to see other FTTH markets in both Asian and North America following the same route and speed. Being a well positioned supplier of optical components for all PON standards in all major markets should bring us increasing revenues in 2007 and on," he contends.
The contract with Dasan Networks is the largest contract Ignis has been awarded over the past few months through its subsidiary; Fi-ra Photonics Co. Ltd. Ignis says it expects the positive market development to continue through 2007.
Fi-ra Photonics Co. Ltd. is a 50.1% owned subsidiary of Ignis ASA.
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