Asian demand causes FTTx market boom

Ovum RHK has posted its analysis of fourth-quarter 2007 FTTx (fibre to the X) shipments, estimating that 1.6 million FTTx subscribers were added globally in 4Q07 - up 11% from the previous quarter.
The leading global FTTx vendors for 4Q07 were Mitsubishi and Sumitomo.
Asia-Pacific continues to dominate FTTx deployments with 84% of all global installations. North America had 14% of all global deployments with Verizon leading the way, due to its shifting deployments from BPON (broadband passive optical network) to the four times higher speed GPON (gigabit passive optical network) equipment.
Europe continues to deploy FTTx equipment but still lags far behind with only 2% of all installations.
“As service providers use up excess inventory global FTTx shipments have rebounded after 3Q07’s decline,” said Lynn Hutcheson, vice president at Ovum RHK.
“The market finished the year with a record gain of 23% over 2006.”