Broadbandtrends: FTTH systems revenue peaks in 2009

OCTOBER 22, 2007 -- The global FTTH market is currently entering a period of growth that will peak in 2009, says market research and analysis firm broadbandtrends in its recently published report, FTTH Equipment Market Begins to "See the Light."

The growth comes as an increasing number of Tier 1 operators across Asia Pacific, EMEA, and North America deploy FTTH networks on a large scale. Additionally, demand for higher bandwidth (particularly in support of multi-stream HDTV IPTV video services), strong competition from cable and alternative operators, escalating costs to maintain copper infrastructure, continuing innovations and cost reductions in optical infrastructure, increasing FTTH interoperability activity, as well as the ability to converge all services onto a single network, are helping to reinforce the attractiveness of FTTH for many operators.

As shown in the figure, PON systems will experience the strongest growth and account for greater than 85 percent of total FTTH systems revenue throughout the forecast period. At the present time, total FTTH systems revenue is expected to reach its peak value during 2009 before experiencing downward pressure, primarily due to declining price points.

Major report highlights include:

• Global FTTH systems revenue is expected to reach its peak value of $3.0 billion in 2009.
  
• PON systems revenue will dominate the global FTTH market throughout the forecast period.
  
• GPON will overtake EPON revenue by 2009 and shipments in 2010.
  
• Asia Pacific will consume the largest portion of FTTH equipment through 2011, when North America takes over.
  
• North America's share of FTTH subscribers will grow from 10 percent in 2006 to 22 percent by 2012.
  
• Nearly 170 million homes will be passed by FTTH by 2012.