JULY 9, 2009 -- Market research firm Infonetics Research (search Lightwave for Infonetics) has released the 2009 edition of its "Optical Network Hardware in Asia Pacific" report.
"Optical network hardware markets grew at a fast pace throughout the Asia-Pacific region in 2008, led by India (up 35% from 2007), Japan (up 25%), and China (up 12%). For comparison, optical network hardware vendor revenue grew 7% in EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa), and declined 4% in North America. Huawei maintains top vendor status in the Asia-Pacific region, with more than a fifth of total optical revenue there, and ZTE and NEC took market share, with ZTE passing Alcatel-Lucent for the first time, and NEC gaining three points overall," notes Andrew Schmitt, directing analyst for optical at Infonetics Research.
China represents the largest single-country optical spending in Asia Pacific, followed by Japan. Korea and India are fairly close to each other in third and fourth place. The rest of Asia Pacific includes five countries with large capex and optical spending: Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Taiwan.
India has a population similar to China, yet currently spends only a third as much on optical network equipment; India's optical network investments are expected to increase the fastest among Asia-Pacific countries through 2013.
According to Infonetics, Asia Pacific represents 36% of telecom capex in 2009, and a smaller portion (31%) of optical equipment spending, as a larger portion of Asia Pacific capex is spent on mobile and other categories.
In 2008, 73% of optical hardware purchased by Asia-Pacific countries was metro equipment and 27% was long haul equipment.
Primary factors driving growth in optical network hardware spending in Asia Pacific include the following:
- continued expansion of consumer broadband services in countries where broadband penetration is relatively low and growing rapidly
wireless network roll-outs in India and China as well as many smaller Asia-Pacific countries are driving the need for optical backhaul- growth of enterprise data services in developed economies such as Japan, as well as in countries such as China, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines
Infonetics' report tracks metro and long-haul optical network hardware split by SDH and WDM in China, Japan, India, and the Republic of Korea, plus the total Asia-Pacific region. The service provides market share, market size, and forecasts by country and region through 2013. Companies tracked include Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, ECI, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Huawei, NEC, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nortel, ZTE, and others.
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