North American optical sales rebound in 2019

News and Business

Recent North American optical sales were up more than 25% for 4Q19 and 10% for all of 2019 according to the most recent Transport Hardware Report from research firm Cignal AI.

The North American packet market for access and aggregation switching devices also grew strongly in the fourth quarter as demand for edge and core switching and routing dropped off dramatically. 5G and other access rollouts boosted growth in the access and aggregation market segment.

“After three years of North American spending declines as operators focused CapEx on wireless and access, optical hardware sales for the region revived, and grew at a healthy pace for 2019, while packet hardware sales remained flat,” said Scott Wilkinson, lead analyst at Cignal AI. “Market leaders Ciena, Infinera, and Cisco all achieved optical sales growth of more than 25% in 2019.”

Cignal AI’s Transport Hardware Report is issued each quarter and examines optical and packet transport equipment revenue across all regions and equipment types. The analysis is based on financial results, independent research, and guidance from individual equipment companies. Forecasts are based on expected spending trends for equipment types within the regions.

Additional 4Q19 Transport Hardware Report findings include:

• Long haul optical spending reached record levels in 2019. Growth slowed in 4Q19 but the segment finished the year up over 10%
• Transport equipment sales in China declined slightly in 4Q19 as packet sales declined and optical sales growth cooled to single digits. When adjusted for the influence of ZTE’s shutdown in 2Q18, optical hardware sales grew less than 10% in 2019
• Japan ended an extraordinary year of optical sales growth, up 25% in Q4 and almost 40% in 2019.

The Cignal AI Transport Hardware Report is published quarterly and includes market share and forecasts for optical and packet transport hardware used in service provider networks worldwide. The report examines revenue for metro WDM, long-haul WDM and submarine (SLTE) optical equipment, and access, aggregation, edge, and core packet equipment in six global regions. Vendors in the report include Adtran, ADVA, Ciena, Cisco, ECI, Ekinops, Fiberhome, Fujitsu, Huawei, Infinera, Juniper, Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, Nokia, Padtec, Tejas, Xtera, and ZTE.

For more information, visit https://cignal.ai/