Passive Optical Networking Gear Sales To Hit $2 Billion By 2009

Worldwide passive optical networking (PON) hardware revenue reached $619 million in 2005, and will grow to $2 billion by 2009, driven by demand for video, IPTV, and other high bandwidth applications, according to a new report by Infonetics Research.

The report also found that sales of Ethernet Access Devices (EADs) grew by more than four times between 2004 and 2005, and will leap from $91 million in 2005 to almost $682 million in 2009. Worldwide, PON subscribers is surging, doubling between 2004 and 2005, and growing from 3.4 million in 2005 to 31 million in 2009, the report concludes.

Mitsubishi is now the leader in worldwide PON market share revenue and ports, taking over from previous market leader Hitachi.

The report found that approximately two-thirds of worldwide PON revenue resulted from FTTH deployments, and a third from FTTB deployment. FTTH will continue to grow at FTTB's expense, and by 2009 will have the majority of worldwide revenue.