Market research firm Infonetics Research
has increased their long-term forecast of carrier Ethernet equipment market from
$37.5 billion to $40.2 billion by 2015.
Infonetics forecasts 15.7 percent growth in
the global carrier Ethernet equipment market in 2011 to reach $32.0 billion,
following a 30.5 percent hike in 2010. The agency expects a 6 percent growth in
service provider investment in carrier Ethernet equipment, and says it will
continue to outpace overall telecom capex.
The move to packet-based IP next-generation
networks and growing consumer, business, and mobile backhaul traffic will drive
the carrier Ethernet equipment market. The carrier move to packet depends
heavily on IP, MPLS, and Ethernet, as operators gradually employ the use of
Ethernet transport instead of SONET/SDH.
Mobile backhaul will continue to be a
particular growth area for carrier Ethernet, with IP/Ethernet equipment
expected to make up 95 percent of all mobile backhaul spending by 2015.
Infonetics finds that the largest carrier
Ethernet investments are in routers, carrier Ethernet switches (CES), and
optical gear, which together make up more than two thirds of the total carrier
Ethernet market
Cisco leads the
carrier Ethernet switch market with 45percnt of global revenue, with no close
competitors.
“Some market segments are growing faster
while others are slowing faster than we originally anticipated. The largest
downward changes are in the Ethernet microwave and VDSL equipment segments, and
the largest upward change is in the hot carrier Ethernet switch segment,” said
Michael Howard, principal analyst for carrier networks and co-founder of
Infonetics Research.
By Telecomlead.com Team
