A new study from Infonetics Research, “PON Equipment in Asia Pacific,” reportedly says that passive optical network, or “PON,” technology has become a popular choice for service providers in the Asia Pacific region.

 

The providers are poised to buy more than 5.5 million EPON, GPON, and WDM-PON ports in 2008, which represents a 37 percent increase over 2007, according to Infonetics. The research firm has predicted strong annual port growth through at least 2011.

 

The report designates the Asia Pacific region as a hotbed for PON technology, and said the area accounted for 55 percent of global PON equipment manufacturer revenue in 2007.

 

Service providers in the Asia Pacific region are building out PON and Ethernet FTTH networks to compete for subscribers. They strive to provide faster, cheaper, more synchronous broadband connections than their competitors. According to the report, service providers in a number of Asia Pacific nations aggressively transit to fiber driven by the government initiatives to reach national broadband connection goals.

 

Infonetics expects these factors will ultimately increase PON equipment manufacturer revenue derived from service providers in Asia Pacific to more than triple between 2007 and 2011. Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband and IPTV (News - Alert) at Infonetics Research noted that Japan is driving the PON market in Asia Pacific while South Korea and China are poised to fuel long-term growth in the EPON and GPON equipment markets.

 

Here’s how the research firm forecasts PON’s growth worldwide through 2011:

 

 

Heynen said he expects short-term growth to be affected by the current economic crisis, but forecasts good times for the PON market in the long-term. Heynen said that this growth will be largely due to the efforts of the governments in subsidizing fiber rollouts and relaxing regulatory restrictions for reaching national goals to connect broadband subscribers.

 

“This is the case in Japan, South Korea, China, Indonesia, and Malaysia, to name a few,” Heynen said.