$15B optical transport equipment market declined 2% in 2021

According to a recently published report from Dell’Oro Group, the trusted source for market information about the telecommunications and networks industries, the Optical Transport equipment market declined 2 percent for the full year 2021 due to weaker market conditions across many countries in the Asia Pacific region including China. The Optical market in other regions—North America, Europe, and Latin America—expanded in the year.

“The Optical Transport market outside of Asia Pacific improved in the year, following a momentary slow down caused by the pandemic in 2020,” said Jimmy Yu, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “It was a noticeably strong year for optical systems in all the other regions. In fact, with the exception of Asia Pacific, optical revenue in 2021 surpassed the pre-pandemic levels in each of the regions. The biggest issue facing the industry is the ongoing component shortage and supply chain bottlenecks. Without these issues, the optical market would have grown at a much higher rate,” added Yu.

Additional highlights:

• Optical Transport revenue in Asia Pacific declined 11 percent in the year due to lower sales across the region. China, which contributes two-thirds of the region’s revenue, declined approximately 9 percent in 2021.
• Optical Transport revenue in North America, Europe, and Latin America grew 12 percent, 6 percent, and 19 percent, respectively.
• The top equipment manufacturers by revenue share for markets outside the Asia Pacific region were Ciena, Huawei, Nokia, Infinera, and Cisco with a combined share exceeding 80 percent.

CT Bureau