According to a new forecast report by Ovum, the Fiber-to-the-x(FTTx) optics market will reach a new record level in 2015, exceeding $1bn this year, up from $953m in 2014, driven by Passive Optical Network (PON) equipment – both Optical Line Termination(OLTs) and Optical Network Termination(ONTs). Ovum believes that next year's forecast will remain strong, with expected revenue of $985m.
Ovum said that the other positive trends contributing to the strong growth are FTTx network deployments by North American Multi-Service Operators (MSOs), Google Fiber, US telcos, European service providers and continued deployments in the Middle East as well as the movement toward Fiber-to-the-Premises(FTTP) or Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) - which require more PON ONT optics.
According to Ovum, the largest potential downside to the forecast could come from a slowdown in FTTx deployments by Chinese Operators. China is the single largest consumer of PON optics in the world and any slowdown would negatively impact the forecast. However, Ovum believes that China’s newest Operator entrant into FTTx, China Mobile, is well positioned to deploy an FTTx network, bringing existing mobile customers onto its new wireline broadband network, and offer additional services.
Julie Kunstler, principal analyst in Ovum’s intelligent networks and components team and author of the report
Numerous positive factors are driving the FTTx optics market to new levels, including FTTH network deployments by China Mobile and the continued network builds by China Telecom and China Unicom. This strong outlook benefits Japanese optical subcomponent vendors such as laser and lens manufacturers. Meanwhile, the wireline broadband FTTx market upswing is having a positive impact on component and equipment vendors.
