- 22 June 2006 -

Comms opto component market to beat $6.6bn by 2011

A new report from Charlottesville, VA, based market research firm Communications Industry Researchers, Inc. (CIR) estimates that the market for optical components used in telecom and datacom networks will grow from $1.5bn this year to exceed $6.6bn in 2011.

The report entitled "Optical Components: The Next Wave" analyzes and forecasts market opportunities in optical components.

Amongst the highlights from the report is the notion that 'fiberization' matters. With the continued build out of more advanced and higher capacity networks, the active components market will grow from just under $1bn in 2006 to almost $4.8bn in 2011. This big surge in growth is due to the rapid penetration of fibre into enterprise and access networks needed to support PONs, Fibre Channel, CWDM and 10-Gigabit Ethernet, and the larger bandwidth applications riding over them.

Another hot topic is also assessed - tunable laser shipments are now being measured annually in the tens of thousands. Many equipment company and service provider RFPs also require them. Though there are just a handful of tunable laser firms left in the business - including Intel, JDSU, Santur, and Syntune - these companies actually have a market to chase after, says CIR, which expects sales of tunable lasers and transmitters to exceed $460m by 2011.

CIR also believes that firms such as JDSU, Metconnex, Optium, Optoplex, and Xtellus that have developed ROADMs over the past few years will finally see a payoff, as the ROADM market reaches almost $300m by 2011. Plus it sees 40-Gbit/sec networks becoming a reality and may well be necessary for new video services on which many service providers are focusing. At the components level, 40 Gbits/sec will increasingly represent an opportunity for those firms that can provide innovative ways of meeting the chromatic dispersion, PMD, and spectral efficiency challenges inherent in 40-Gbit/sec networking.

CIR research indicates that the quality of products coming out of China and other low-labor-cost countries is often not good enough for high-end telecom/datacom products. It is possible that the movement towards Chinese manufacturing may be over.

The report analyzes the current issues and market opportunities for optical component suppliers. It provides highly detailed forecasts of component market segments broken out by units and dollars and illustrates how and where the industry will find new sources of revenues, according to CIR. The report also provides market commentary of components suppliers as well and discusses business and technology developments that are driving the market. Coverage includes the lasers, detectors, filters, amplifiers, modulators, splitters, OADMs, DCUs, and switches used in Ethernet, Fibre Channel, SONET/SDH, WDM, and PON networks.

http://www.cir-inc.com/products/prod_detail.cfm?prod=1&id=209