Optical WDM metro market hits 'record level'

The global wavelength division multiplexer (WDM) equipment market grew 23% sequentially in Q2 2015, according to the latest report from Dell'Oro Group, an analyst of the telecommunications, networks, and data center IT industries.

During this quarter, sales of WDM Metro equipment, which is used mainly in metro and regional applications, grew at a rate slightly higher than that of DWDM Long Haul, attaining a new record quarterly revenue level of $1.4 billion.

The vendor landscape is highly fragmented with at least twenty equipment manufacturers actively selling WDM Metro equipment. In the quarter, only three vendors - Ciena, Huawei, and ZTE - grabbed more than 10% share of the market each, and held a combined market share of 50%.

Jimmy Yu, VP Optical Transport research at Dell'Oro Group, commented, "Demand for WDM equipment in metro applications is reaching new levels. We think this is just the beginning and we're excited by all the market activity such as vendor consolidation, new market development, and product innovation.

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"We're predicting the WDM Metro market to grow 10 percent for full year 2015 driven by rising use of WDM systems for mobile and fixed backhaul as well as data center interconnect. We anticipate 100 Gbps wavelength shipments to grow through the year, and for 200 Gbps wavelength shipments to reach significant volumes by year-end," added Yu.

The Dell'Oro report complements the second quarter 2015 Optical Network Hardware analysis by IHS Infonetics, reported by optics.org, last week, which concluded that global optical network hardware revenue (including WDM and SONET/SDH systems) grew 22% in 2Q15. In that report, Europe was the only major world region showing positive year-over-year growth, up 8% in 2Q15.

Dell'Oro Group's Optical Transport Quarterly Report offers in-depth coverage of the market with tables covering manufacturers' revenue, average selling prices, unit shipments (by speed). The report tracks DWDM long haul terrestrial, WDM metro, multiservice multiplexers (SONET/SDH), optical switch, and optical packet platforms.