Telecom Lead Asia: With 42 percent market share, Chinese telecom equipment vendor ZTE has been ranked No.1 in passive optical networking (PON) shipments, according to a report from Ovum.
ZTE also ranked first globally in shipments of optical network terminals (ONTs) and optical network units (ONUs) with 32 percent market share, after the company achieved shipments of more than 13 million lines.
Ovum’s data showed that ZTE attained market leadership while the total number of optical line terminals (OLT) ports shipped declined between 2011 and 2012.
For many years, ZTE has been able to maintain annual growth rate of more than 30 percent in its PON business. A major part of this growth is attributed to the company’s growth in investment in FTTx networks globally.
ZTE was ranked in No. 2 globally for market share of PON ONT/ONU shipments in 2011, at 28 percent, a nearly 10 percent increase from the previous year. However, in 2011 ZTE was the No.1 PON OLT supplier in terms of both annual shipments (1.8 million) and market share with 40.9 percent share of the global market.
ZTE has won major PON contracts from telecommunications operators focusing the important markets of China, Asia Pacific, Europe and Latin America.
There was dramatic growth in the FTTx (fiber to the X) and CMTS (cable modem termination system) markets mainly due to the ongoing next-generation access (NGA) network upgrades happening across the world.
“ZTE’s leading position in the PON market is the result of broad recognition of our work from across the global telecommunications industry,” said Zhu Yongxing, general manager of ZTE’s fixed-network products. “We will continue our efforts in innovation and service to develop our PON business, to support operators globally in building high-speed and intelligent broadband optical networks.”
ZTE supplies more than 40 percent of the PON products for each of the three main telecommunication operators in China, the world’s biggest investor in optical networks, the company said.
In Asia Pacific, ZTE has a strategic partnership with Singapore Telecommunications, and has won major contracts with operators in Indonesia and Malaysia.
In Europe, ZTE has grabbed a significant share in the PON market signing deals with main optical network operators in countries including Russia, Turkey and Spain. ZTE also completed the construction of the optical network of Moscow, the largest scale network in Europe, and is well-positioned in Lithuania, the European market with the highest rate of FTTx network penetration.
In Latin America, ZTE has helped the main operators in markets including Brazil and Uruguay complete the construction of large-scale FTTx networks.
At present, ZTE’s PON products serve more than 150 operators in 100 countries, with a combined total of 150 million lines in use, reaching more than 40 million households.