Alcatel-Lucent aims to build broadband optical network ecosystem with Taiwan makers

Alcatel-Lucent will continue to cooperate with Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) as well as Taiwan-based network-equipment makers to develop broadband optical network products with an aim to build an ecosystem for the industry, according to Benjamin Reboul, director, APAC FTTx business and product strategy, Alcatel-Lucent.

Demand for GPON (Gigabyte passive optical network) equipment from telecom carriers in the US and Europe has been gaining momentum recently, indicated Reboul, who also asserted that the buildup of related broadband optical networks will be one the of major investment projects for service providers worldwide over the next few years.

Since a number of Taiwan network-equipment makers have already ventured into the production of GPON CPE (customer premise equipment) products, Alcatel-Lucent can team up with local makers to further explore the GPON market, Reboul stated.

According to data provided by the market research firm Infonetics, global shipments of GPON equipment will reach US$1.25 billion in 2008, and further increase to US$1.78 billion in 2009 and US$2.22 billion in 2011.

Alcatel-Lucent ranked the number one GPON equipment vendor worldwide with a 44% share in the second quarter of 2008, the company quoted data from Dell'Oro as indicating.