Market Overview

Traditionally, the Access Network has consistently been regarded as a bottleneck in the Deployment of communication services. This is primarily because the bandwidth available has lagged behind that provided within local-area networks (LANs) and in the upper echelons of the network (in metropolitan and core networks, for example), where concentration factors and economies of scale have allowed optical fiber to unleash virtually unlimited bandwidth capacity. The optical access network is that part of the access network implemented using optical fiber. Optical access offers the promise of greatly increased access-network bandwidth by up to several gigabits per second and most likely more, as technology advances. This bandwidth availability opens up new architectural possibilities for the provisioning of high-bandwidth services. Optical Access Networking equipment is a key growing market, as well as Network Management Services, which will allow telecommunications carriers to provide security and quality of service among other services to their clients. iPhotonix’s solutions enables additional avenues for the carrier to monetize their networks from the services they provide to the consumers.

The global telecom equipment market growth rate is expected to remain stable as operators will still be cautious and wait for a gradual expected return to growth. Basically, operators' expenses will be selective while keeping their investments in IP-based equipment and optical transmission in order to meet the ever-increasing bandwidth requirements of businesses and consumers. Operators' objectives in terms of very high-speed broadband and mobile broadband penetrations will help boost up the telecom equipment market. Given the announcements made by major incumbents to massively deploy FTTx lines in the United Kingdom, Brazil and China, the fixed broadband access equipment market will increase gradually over the next two years and accelerate until 2015. In the mobile sector, with LTE network deployment schedules and 3G/4G licenses awards - long awaited, the mobile access market is expected to grow as well.

One area of the Optical Access Equipment Market is the Passive Optical Network (PON) Equipment market. Rising demand for bandwidth-intensive triple play content, development of next-generation PON technologies, and continued migration from copper to Optical based broadband access will stimulate global passive optical network (PON) equipment market to reach $7.62 billion by 2015. (Electronics.ca Publications) Service providers are looking out for solutions to capitalize on the efficiency of existing bandwidth availability and economically transport and manage digital traffic within networks, and minimize the need to build new networks for triple play content distribution. A 100% optical network such as FTTx have the capability to deliver a broader and more vibrant entertainment experience to all its users. Using fiber optical cables, passive optical network equipment enables broadband access from the Core Network of Service Providers to the subscribers at the Access Network.

The transition from copper to fiber is accelerating as network providers seek the benefit of deploying a much lower-cost-to-operate infrastructure, while being able to provide higher value services to end users. It is currently estimated that the number of homes connected to a fiber network worldwide will grow 30% year-over-year to 130 million households by 2013. Globally, GPON (Gigabit PON) has become the primary PON technology for the deployment of FTTx networks and will continue to remain so.

Finally, even casual observers recognize that mobility is also driving the Optical Access Equipment market today. Pyramid Research forecasts that the number of mobile broadband connections worldwide will reach 1 billion during 2012. Clearly, the mobile broadband boom and the evolution to advanced 3G and new 4G technologies is good news for the mobile equipment suppliers. However, mobile broadband is not just about wireless technologies, there is a critical wireline element in mobile backhaul: connecting the cell towers with the mobile switching sites deeper in the network. This is also where Optical Access Equipment is growing exponential. In the past few years, the impact of mobile backhaul on the transport equipment market has been huge. Conservatively, it is estimate more than 60 percent of multiservice transport equipment revenues was derived from mobile backhaul. Over the next few years this investment must change from traditional transport services over copper to a newer fiber optic based network. In its product roadmap iPhotonix has a backhaul family of products that will answer the demand for a better, faster and cheaper product that can handle immense size of information is very fast speeds. The experience and technology of iPhotonix in the processing of digital voice and data enables it to move to this field with limited efforts.