Optical Wavelength Services Market Size & Share Analysis - Growth Trends & Forecasts (2023 - 2028)

The Optical Wavelength Services Market size is expected to grow from USD 4.33 billion in 2023 to USD 7.54 billion by 2028, at a CAGR of 11.71% during the forecast period (2023-2028).

Key Highlights

• With global data volumes projected to double by 2025, there is a growing need to focus on cost and power consumption per bit. Extending large wavelengths across longer distances can make services more cost-effective and efficient for end-users. Larger wavelengths also provide significant network bandwidth expansion, essential to power high-definition content, 5G cell networks, IoT, remote work, and other applications.
• The demand for fiber-to-home (FTTH) systems is increasing, accelerating the deployment of network connections not just in urban areas but also in rural and remote locations. These investments lead to more robust competition among cable companies to create a denser, higher-performance wireless network and high wavelength services.
• In February 2023, Fujitsu launched the Ultra Optical System called 1FINITY, a hyper-reliable optical transport platform delivering extreme performance and scalability with data rates of 1.2 terabits per second (Tbps) on a single wavelength. This platform helps to reduce power consumption and achieve a 60% reduction of CO2 emissions throughout networks.
• Despite the benefits of implementing FTTH more extensively across networks, carriers are still discouraged by the cost of installing additional fiber and the end-users' optical modems. As the industry transitions to larger bandwidths, such as 50G and 100G, which require coherent technology in the modems, this cost issue will worsen.
• Even after the Covid-19 pandemic, network operators continue to add more gear and capacity to support remote work, cloud-based services, streaming video, IoT, and 5G wireless technology. This increasing demand for data and high-speed networks with uninterrupted supply drives Network Solution providers to adopt high wavelengths that can quickly scale up capacity to address traffic bottlenecks or combat slower data transfer speeds.

Optical Wavelength Services Market Trends

Less than 10 Gbps Bandwidth has Been Driving the Market

• Coherent WDM technology is a highly advanced optical transmission technology that offers numerous benefits, including higher bit rates, greater flexibility, simpler DWDM line systems, and better optical performance. This technology has enabled the development of cost-effective and highly reliable optical transport in DWDM networks, with wavelength speeds increasing from 10 Gb/s in the pre-coherent era to 100 Gb/s, 200 Gb/s, and now even 400 or 800 Gb/s with the latest coherent optical equipment.
• CWDM and DWDM are two different methods for addressing the increasing bandwidth requirements for information transmission. DWDM employs a larger number of narrower wavelength bands or channels, while CWDM uses broader wavelength bands per channel.
• According to the of Communications (Ofcom), the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications, and postal industries of the United Kingdom. The average person uses around 2.9GB of data per month, and this demand is continuously increasing with the evolution of digitalization. However, this confirms that 10Gb/s is more than enough for the average phone user.
• In February 2023, StarHub, the Singaporean telco, introduced ultra-speed broadband with up to 10 times the speed and bandwidth of standard broadband services in Singapore. This high-speed broadband service will significantly enhance household connectivity, providing optimal responsiveness for online gaming and lightning-fast content streaming.
• In June 2022, MASV, the video transfer service, adopted next-generation fiber-optic internet services with 10Gbps performance. This upgrade enables MASV to move Petabytes of video securely and efficiently through the cloud, making it faster, better, and more cost-effective for anyone to transfer large amounts of video data.

Asia Pacific to Hold Dominant Share of the Market

• India and China are the two countries that account for nearly half of the world's mobile traffic, while North America and Europe together only account for a quarter of the global mobile data services. India, in particular, has emerged as a major player in the mobile data services market, with the highest mobile data consumption rate of 12 GB/user a month globally.
• Moreover, India witnesses a remarkable increase of 25 million new smartphone users every quarter, making it a crucial market for mobile data services. This surge in smartphone usage has led to an average data consumption rate of 19.5 GB per user per month in 2022, indicating a growing demand for data-driven applications and services. This trend highlights India's position as a key player in the global mobile data market, with enormous potential for further growth and innovation in the future.
• The strong growth of mobile data services has also fueled demand for 5G devices, with private enterprise spending on 5G networks leading to robust shipments of these devices in India. It is estimated that over 70 million 5G devices have been shipped to India, and the country's investment in private wireless networks is expected to reach approximately USD 250 million by 2027. This will encourage telecom providers to offer more powerful network connection speeds, which, in turn, will promote the growth of Optical Wavelength Services.
• Governments in developing nations are taking initiatives to encourage the development of communication infrastructure in their countries. The Asia-Pacific region, in particular, is becoming increasingly popular as a hub for manufacturing due to its cheap labor and high adoption rate of the Industry 4.0 movement. Governments in Asian countries are aggressively promoting the growth of new firms, with programs like "Made in China 2025" designed to broadly support Chinese manufacturing and the implementation of Industry 4.0.

Optical Wavelength Services Industry Overview

The Optical Wavelength Services Market currently experiences moderate competition, but this sector is expected to grow as vendors plan new product launches, partnerships, and acquisitions. Some of the market leaders in this segment include Zayo Group, Nokia, Century Link, Verizon Wireless, Century Link, and Windstream Communications. Compared to other network setups, optical wavelength networks offer a scalable solution that can quickly increase capacity to combat slower data transfer speeds or address traffic bottlenecks.

In March 2022, Enet, a telecom network provider, signed a contract with EXA Infrastructure to establish new high-speed datacentre-to-datacentre optical network connections between Dublin and data centers in Europe and the North Atlantic. This International Wave project aims to provide price-competitive, secure, high-speed, and transparent inter-datacentre connectivity.

In the same month, Zayo Group Holdings, a provider of fiber-based communications solutions, collaborated with Infinera, a networking solutions provider, to jointly develop the world's longest-known terrestrial 800G optical wavelength in a commercial network that covers 1,044.51 km. With the integration of Infinera's hardware solutions, the project was able to fulfill the demand for more bandwidth at higher line rates. The Zayo-owned fiber route spans from Springville, Utah, to Reno, Nevada, and is lit and powered by Infinera’s ICE6 800G coherent technology. This development showcases the potential of optical wavelength services to meet the growing demand for high-speed data transfer and network connectivity.

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