RHK: European optical transport market to double:
lightreading.com
SAN FRANCISCO -- According to a new report released today by telecom market research firm, RHK Inc., the market for European optical transport, including shipments for WDM, (wavelength division multiplexing), SDH (synchronous digital hierarchy), and DCS (digital cross-connect) equipment, will reach $9 billion in 2001 - with a CAGR of 25% through the forecast period. Continued deregulation in the European Union (EU), increased deployment of submarine cable systems, and dramatic increases in aggregate bandwidth capabilities will be key contributors in driving this market to $14.8 billion by 2004.
RHK projects the European WDM market for terrestrial optical transport will grow 192%, to $1.6 billion by year-end, climbing to $5.6 billion by 2004. This forecast is based on over 100 interviews with European service providers (including pan-European operators, incumbent PTTs, CLECs, OLOs (other licensed operators), city carriers, MSOs, and undersea cable system operators). The traffic triangle of France, Germany, and the U.K, which represents the three largest telecommunication routes between North America and the European continent, will be a strong driver of this growth.
"We are seeing a dramatic increase in service providers acquiring transatlantic undersea capacity as it becomes more critical for service providers to scale intercontinental networks," remarks Stéphane Téral, Director of European Transport at RHK. "The Internet is driving growth in international traffic within Europe and to North America. The five largest cities in their volume of international Internet traffic are London, Amsterdam, Paris, New York, and Frankfurt."
RHK reports that Nortel Networks led the overall European WDM market in 2000 with a 38% market share, up sharply from 23% in 1999. This was due to strong shipments of DWDM equipment, particularly at the 10 Gbps, STM-64 capacity. Alcatel and Ciena follow with 20% and 17% percent share, respectively, in the overall market. The remaining top vendors include Lucent, Marconi, Sycamore, Cisco, ECI, Ericsson, ONI, Siemens, Sorrento, and NEC.
In the SDH equipment market, sales reached $5.3 billion in 2000 and are expected to reach almost $10 billion by 2004. Marconi leads the market with a 29% market share, up from 20% in 1999. Marconi's leadership position is a result of its acquisitions from Bosch and Nokia, which helped Marconi better penetrate the Benelux, German, and Scandinavian markets. Alcatel follows in second position with 24%, and Nortel is third with 17%. Other top vendors include Lucent, Siemens, ECI, Sagem, Redback, and Tellabs. (The sum of the WDM, SDH, and DCS markets exceeds the total optical transport market because of equipment overlap between the categories.) |
