Telecom equipment vendors Huawei, Ciena, and Alcatel-Lucent are the WDM market share leaders in the third quarter of 2013, said Infonetics Research.
In the third quarter of 2013, sales of WDM optical equipment rose 4 percent from a year ago. But overall optical spending is down on a quarter-over-quarter and year-over-over basis.
Infonetics says tier 1 carriers will dial back spending. There’s a general weakness in the market, even from carriers that didn’t aggressively ramp spending earlier this year.
Globally, the optical network hardware market (WDM and SONET/SDH) declined 7 percent sequentially in Q3, and down 1 percent from the year-ago quarter.
Total optical network spending is flat on a rolling 4-quarter basis, with WDM growth accelerating and notching a 5th consecutive quarter of growth in Q3.
Earlier, Ovum said the size of the optical networks (ON) market will cross $17.5 billion by 2018, growing at a 3.1 percent CAGR from 2012 — driven by 100G.
Global ON equipment spending is projected to grow at 1.1 percent in 2013 based on positive growth forecasts for North America, SLTE, Asia-Pacific and South & Central America. North American ON sales in 2013 will grow at 9.1 percent in 2013.
( 100G to drive optical networks market to cross $17.5 billion by 2018: Ovum )
According to Infonetics report, North America optical spending grew 13.4 percent year-over-year in Q3 following an 11.1 percent y-o-y increase the previous quarter, driven by aggressive 100G rollouts by tier 1 operators
EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) WDM spending declined on a year-over-year and sequential basis, nearing the record low set in Q3.
Japan dragged down the Asia Pacific optical market, a result of spending retracing huge gains in 2012.
