Ovum says its preliminary estimates for the third quarter of 2011 indicate the fixed broadband access equipment market remains healthy. Annualized shipment volumes remain at or near record levels across the FTTx, DSL, and CMTS segments, the market research and analysis firm asserts. However, while volumes in the FTTx PON and CMTS segments were up from last year, the DSL market was flat.
Meanwhile, the quarter also marked the beginning of 10G EPON shipments, thanks to ZTE Corp. This first shipment doesn’t represent the opening of a 10-Gbps floodgate, however. “Prices for 10G equipment remain high, so we expect shipment numbers to stay small for some time,” Kamalini Ganguly, Ovum analyst, said. “Nevertheless, it is an important milestone in the quest for higher bandwidth capacity.”
In its new Market Share Alert: 3Q11 FTTx, DSL, and CMTS report, Ovum says that sequentially, PON OLT shipments contined to grow, but at a slower pace than in recent quarters. DSL and CMTS markets experienced double-digit sequential declines. Seasonality in North America played a role in the CMTS decline, as did other factors such as declining legacy ADSL port shipments and DSL ports shipped in conjunction with fiber-to-the-building (FTTB).
The sequential declines were particularly high in South & Central America, but this does not indicate that growth has stopped, according to Ovum. Said Ganguly, “Annualized shipments remain high in South & Central America despite large sequential declines across the DSL, CMTS, and PON market segments in 3Q11. Even YoY growth was double-digit negative or close to it in the DSL and CMTS markets. But the long-term outlook for this region remains bright.”
Turning to the supplier realm, Ovum reports that Huawei maintained its lead in the PON OLT and ONT/ONU markets, with 40% and 30% shares respectively. Huawei also led the DSL market with a 35% share. Within DSL rankings, Ericsson moved up to fourth position for the first time in many years while ADTRAN moved up to sixth. Cisco remained on top of the CMTS market with 56%.
Top vendors within the different niches in descending share order included:
- PON OLT: Huawei, ZTE, Fiberhome, Alcatel-Lucent, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo
- PON ONT/ONU: Huawei, ZTE, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, Alcatel-Lucent, Sumitomo
- DSL: Huawei, ZTE, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, ADTRAN
- CMTS: Cisco, Arris, Motorola.