The year 2005 experienced
an impressive revival in
global demands for optical
fibers. Developed and emerging
economies had encouraging
announcements on infrastructure
development projects. There are
new and sustainable demand
drivers on the anvil and there is a
flurry of activity to develop new
products to address applications as
fiber comes closer to the
subscriber.
The global fiber optic industry
As reported by CRU International -
a research agency in the United
Kingdom, the global demand for
optical fiber products increased to
75.7 million-km in 2005 compared
with 62.5 million-km in 2004,
translating to a Y-o-Y growth of 21
per cent. CRU has also tracked the
global price trends for optical
fibers and has reported that the
prices have stabilised over the past
twelve business quarters.
The growth of demand for fiber
optic cables was due to stronger
FTTx related deployments in North
America and Western Europe, as
well as stronger backbone
deployments in Eastern Europe,
Middle East and Africa.
There is a significant push to
offer higher-bandwidth services
both by wire-line and wireless
operators in the mature markets.
Rapidly growing industry
segments such as broadband, Voice
over Internet Protocol (VoIP),
streaming media, technological
innovations in fiber optics, DWDM
and WDM have contributed to the
growth in demand in the
developed economies.
The increase in emergingmarket
backbone deployments
resulted from deregulation or
liberalising market developments,
investment in new infrastructure to
compete with incumbents and
deployments in developing
economies by utilities that have
extensive right-of-way.
North America showed the
strongest 2005 growth with 30 per
cent growth, followed by Asian
Markets,Western Europe and
Eastern Europe with 21 per cent, 14
per cent and eight per cent growth
respectively. In the emerging
markets, which comprise Middle
East, Africa and Latin America,
consolidated demand grew by 15
per cent.
In 2005, the Asian markets
continued to constitute the largest
demand at 48 per cent of the total
global demand. The markets of
North America and Western Europe
comprised 43 per cent of the
global demand.
About the Author
Keith D'Silva is responsible for Corporate
Communications and Media Relations at
Sterlite Optical Technologies. Previously, Keith
was a Business Manager, responsible for sales
of Sterlite's optical fiber products in the Middle
East. Keith joined Sterlite in 1998 and has held
various positions including manufacturing and
business development. He holds a Bachelor of
Engineering degree in Chemical Engineering
and a Master's degree Business Administration
from the University of Pune, India.
....CONTD
