Dittberner Associates, an international market research and consultancy firm, recently released a new report on global FTTH shipments. The research, entitled, “DSL, FTTH and FTTB/LAN Shipment Analysis,” reveals that quarterly FTTH shipments were up 5 percent QoQ and 76 percent YoY.

 

In addition, shipments surpassed 2.8 million ports. However, despite this increase, the percentages ended up being were lower than predicted. The research firm estimated that annual shipments for 2008 would be10.5 million ports, while Dittberner’s January 2008 forecast was for 11.5 million ports.

 

According to the research, the main factor impacting shipments is the Japanese market. In this country, the number of FTTH and FTTB subscribers grew only by 627,000, compared to the second quarter growth of 939,000. The North American market, however, saw a slight increase.

 

It was also found that Korea is playing a crucial role and China is beginning to deploy FTTH and FTTB in large quantities as well. 

 

Vendor market share was split more this quarter, as the Japanese market became less of a major player. Chinese and Korean vendors took a significant market share.

 

For ports shipped, Mitsubishi remains the market leader, while Sumitomo fell to fifth. Gaining momentum, Tellabs took second and Cisco (News - Alert), because P2P have more ports than PON, and because Japan’s market shifted more to MDU deployments, moved into third.

 

Standing tall in fourth in shipments to Verizon was Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert), but its P2P win in KPN may move the company up the list in the future.

 

This quarter, it was evident that the mix of technologies continues to shift, with GPON moving ahead of BPON for the first time. P2P Ethernet continues to expand both in absolute terms and in market share. GePON share should rise again since China has chosen it for FTTH/FTTB deployments.

 

Although the market did grow this quarter, Dittberner believes that the slowdown in other parts of the Telecom market will trickle down to FTTH. FTTB deployments will be more successful, because there is a much lower installation cost per subscriber. This shows why FTTB/LAN shipments were up 29 percent quarter on quarter in the third quarter of this year.

 

This broadband study is part of Dittberner’s ongoing market research service updated quarterly, created to track the BBxDSL and BBFTTX vendors and their market potential. The study constitutes of business cases, case studies, and market forecast. For carriers, the broadband study provides lessons learned and vendor selection advice to lower decision-making risk. With this research, vendors can learn about carrier priorities, competitive threats, and niche market opportunities.