Passive Optical Network (PON) Equipment Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Passive Optical Network (PON) Equipment Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.27% over the forecast period (2021-2026).

Key Highlights

• In recent years, the penetration of LTE networks and fixed broadband subscription has rapidly grown and is expected to follow the trend in the forecast period. The latest report by GSM has shown that mobile operators are expected to invest USD 160 billion by the end o 2020 to expand their 5G networks to a larger footprint. Also, the Ericsson mobility report has mentioned the fixed broadband connection is expected to grow steadily by 3% year-on-year till 2024, which is expected to drive growth for the PON equipment market.
• Additionally, the governments are taking initiatives like smart city programs with fiber optic rich network to enable smooth flow of IoT infrastructure. Fiber optic network allows the technology to drive utilities like water, electricity, wastewater, and sewerage management, as well as security and communication. According to the UN, over 68% of the global population is estimated to live in urban areas by the year 2050, which will fuel more smart city projects globally.
• Due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, the countries across the world have implemented precautionary measures. While schools are being closed, and communities are asked to stay at home, and many organizations are finding a way to enable their employees to work from their homes. The telecom companies are also actively making efforts to build full-fiber infrastructure to deliver an ultrafast, ultra-reliable, and futureproof broadband network.
• For instance, in May 2020, Nokia has announced to build and deploy GPON and XGS-PON fiber access technologies in partnership with Openreach to expand Openreach’s fiber-rich network to reach 4.5 million premises in the United Kingdom.

Key Market Trends

GPON Equipments is Expected to Grow Significantly

• Enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) provides greater data-bandwidth due to latency improvements on 5G NR and 4G LTE. It led most operators towards new use cases for 5G by delivering mobile broadband services directly to customers. It thus, complements ample capacity for digital services, owing to better spectral efficiency and capacity and increasing smartphone data usage in developed & developing countries.
• In May 2020, one of the critical European broadband solution providers - Iskratel has announced the provision of GPON equipment for the construction of the ultra-fast fiber-optic broadband network in 210 municipalities in the region as part of the RUNE (Rural Network) project. In this three-year project, 233 thousand will be provided with access to the internet at speed up to 10 Gbit/s.
• With the accelerating rollout of GPON worldwide, telecom operators are also actively moving towards the next step in fiber rollouts. NG-PON2 is an emerging technology for delivering even faster speed over fiber optics. This is expected to hinder the market growth for GPON in the longer run.

Asia-Pacific Region to Witness the Fastest Growth

• In recent years, there has been an increased emphasis on the high-speed internet and 5G network. The major driving countries in the region for the same are emerging countries, including China, Japan, Taiwan, India, and Australia. China has an established ecosystem for 5G and is expected to grow further in the forecast period. However, the 5G technology is expected to serve as a hotspot technology in existence with the current mobile broadband; the growth is expected to be gradual.
• According to the local media houses, China’s capital spending on next-generation communication technology, including 5G services, is likely to be around CHY 200 Billion yuan in 2020, with total investment in the next eight years CHY 1.5 trillion.
• According to China Mobile, the outbreak had accelerated shift toward using digital and cloud-based services, stating the operator would support this through continued network upgrades.

Competitive Landscape

The market for passive optical network equipment is moderately consolidated due to the presence of a few companies in the market. Also, these companies are extensively investing in offering a wide range of technolgies to the customers. Moreover, these are companies that are continuously investing in making strategic partnerships and acquisitions, along with product development, to gain more market share. Some of the recent developments by the companies are listed below.

• May 2020 - Nokia has announced to build and deploy GPON and XGS-PON fiber access technologies in partnership with Openreach to expand Openreach’s fiber-rich network to reach 4.5 million premises in the United Kingdom.
• October 2019 - Jurassic Fibre based in the United Kingdom has announced to Start FTTP Broadband Rollout in South West. As part of the first phase of the project, the company has promised to run a new Gigabit-capable fiber-optic broadband network (GPON) into communities across East Devon.

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