LightCounting’s Access Optics Report describes the market outlook for both Fiber-to-the-X (FTTx) optics and wireless fronthaul, midhaul, and backhaul network optics.
In aggregate, LightCounting estimates that the access optics market will reach 127 million devices shipped, and $1.77 billion in revenues in 2022 (Figure 1). FTTx devices will account for roughly three-quarters of shipments and 49% of revenues. Fronthaul transceivers account for 22% of unit shipments and 40% of total revenues.
Annual revenues for access optics are expected to total $1.4 to $1.6 billion through 2027, cycling down for a few years then growing again in 2025-2027 (Figure 1). Both wireless and FTTX are cyclic markets, driven by waves of deployment of successive generations of technology, and we expect 6G wireless and 25G/50G PON deployment to begin in the last few years of the forecast period.
![New Generations of Access Technology Come into View]( "New Generations of Access Technology Come into View")
Despite the advent of 25G and 50G PON late in the forecast period, the bulk of revenue in the next five years will come from the 10G-PON group (including XG-PON2, XGS-PON, and 10G-EPON).
China continues to play a dominant role in access markets
China has the world’s largest population, living in largely urban settings, with a central government willing to spend money on Internet access infrastructure, while the other high population countries have relied to a great extent on market forces to direct investment in fixed and mobile broadband. As a result, China has been and will remain the largest single-country market in terms of consumption of both wireless and fixed access optics for the next five years.
Figure 2 shows that China’s share of the world’s consumption of wireless and FTTx optics will remain above 50% through 2027, and that China will remain by far the largest single-country market.
![New Generations of Access Technology Come into View]( "New Generations of Access Technology Come into View")
Alternative access tech and ODNs also addressed in the report
Broadband access today is delivered over copper, coaxial cable, cellular radio, and optical technologies, but several alternatives exist that could supplant existing networks and operators with new ones, including LMDS and millimeter-wave, geostationary satellites, medium earth orbit satellite (MEOS), low earth orbit satellite (LEOS), stratospheric airborne platforms, and low altitude airborne platforms (drones). LightCounting reviews all of these in its Access Optics report and provides an assessment of their impact on the existing access market over the next five years.
Source: www.lightcounting.com ｜ Posted: November 2022