PON, VDSL, cable equipment sales continue growth in 3Q12, says Dell'Oro

Sales of systems for access networks – which includes PON, DSL, and cable hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) equipment – grew by a “moderate” 6% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2012, according to a new report by Dell’Oro Group. PON systems were the stars, advancing 21% over the same quarter of 2011.

Systems for cable MSO networks grew 5% annually. However, DSL equipment declined versus the year-ago quarter, as a decrease in ADSL revenues offset 30% growth in VDSL revenues.

“We saw strong growth from three segments in the third quarter. PON revenue surged to a record level, largely driven by strong GPON shipments to China, continuing the trend of the last several years,” said Steve Nozik, principal analyst of access research at Dell’Oro Group. Cable revenue growth was driven by strong DOCSIS 3.0 CPE sales that more than offset sharply lower CMTS sales.

“For DSL, high-speed VDSL port shipments grew more than 50% over the year ago period driven by Western Europe, where a number of operators have chosen a fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) upgrade strategy utilizing VDSL,” Nozik said.

Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, and ZTE won the quarter in the GPON space; excluding sales in China, however, Calix would jump into the third position, the report states. In the growing VDSL segment Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei again held the top two slots, with ADTRAN at number three. For cable equipment sales, Cisco retained its top position in CMTS sales in 3Q12, while Arris led the cable CPE segment.

The Dell’Oro Group Quarterly Access Report provides tables that cover manufacturers’ revenue, average selling prices, and port/unit shipments for cable, DSL, and PON equipment.

Greece's Forthnet launches FTTH pilot in Athens

Forthnet, a competitive telco based in Greece, launched a pilot Fiber to the Home (FTTH) service in Athens over which it will offer a triple play bundle to residential and business subscribers.

Leveraging ADTRAN’s (Nasdaq: ADTN) GPON (Gigabit passive optical network) equipment, the service provider is serving 2,000 homes with FTTH-based services in the municipality of Nea.

The ADTRAN GPON solution allows a simplified migration of Forthnet’s customer base to the new FTTH services, while enabling capacity and bandwidth scale for future demands of new media-rich services

With the ADTRAN GPON gear, Forthnet said it will be able to more easily migrate their existing customer base to the new FTTH-based services and scale to access whatever new over-the-top (OTT) and their own bandwidth-hungry services they develop in-house.

“By taking this approach, we are not only enabling the Metropolitan area of Athens to make the necessary technology leap, but are also giving local residents and businesses the opportunity to use new bandwidth hungry applications without fear of reduced performance or latency,” said Giannis Kavaklis, Chief Commercial Director at Forthnet, in a release announcing the deployment. “ADTRAN’s FTTH solution not only gives us the bandwidth required today, but also provides a simple migration path forward that helps us to stay competitive in our market in the long term.”

This FTTH network will complement its ongoing DSL service offerings, which includes a bundle of sports, movies and entertainment, in addition to voice services. Currently, Forthnet offers its triple play bundle over traditional DSL and it recently launched its new VDSL service.

Like fellow providers OTE and Wind, Forthnet is offering up to 50 Mbps data on its VDSL-based service. Eligible customers will have to pay an additional €10.00 ($13.00) to add VDSL services to existing ADSL2+ offerings.

While the new FTTH service will up Forthnet’s competitive footing, it also provides a vote of confidence for ADTRAN as they look to establish a greater presence in the European broadband market. In addition to their own internal efforts, the vendor immediately broadened its international presence when it purchased Nokia Siemens Networks’ access division last year.