The telecom service provider router and switch revenue reached $14.6 billion in 2014 with a flat growth — as SDN (software-defined networking) hesitation slowed spending.
Michael Howard, principal analyst for carrier networks at Infonetics Research, now part of IHS, said that the router and switch spending will slowly climb to $17 billion in 2019, a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of just over 3 percent.
In Q4 2014, worldwide service provider router and switch revenue rose 2 percent to $3.8 billion.
Sales in the core router segment fell 5 percent in 2014 due to the volume of capacity already in the ground.
Carriers in North America exercised caution in their router / switch spending in 2014, sending revenue down 7 percent.
EMEA, Asia Pacific and Latin America were in positive territory in 2014. China had a double-digit increase.
Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Huawei and Juniper stayed in dominant positions, together taking 85 percent of revenue.
editor@telecomlead.com
