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| Gartner Dataquest Says North American Wavelength Market to Grow 22 Percent in 2002 |
| Report Provides Analysis on Market Through 2006 |
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SAN JOSE, Calif., August 29, 2002 - While North American wavelength market growth has slowed from previous years with the fading of the indefeasible rights of use (IRU) boom, it will see double-digit growth through 2006 and become a billion-dollar market by 2004, according to Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT and ITB).
The North American wavelength market is projected to reach $705 million in 2002, a 22 percent increase from 2001. The market will continue its steady growth with revenue surpassing $1.3 billion in 2006. The metropolitan wavelength segment will pace service growth, rising from 20 percent in 2002 to nearly 32 percent in 2006. "Large, predominantly wholesale customers are growing into huge volumes of capacity they bulked up on on a relatively speculative basis," said Steve Koppman, senior analyst for Gartner Dataquest's Worldwide Public Network Services program. "The dominant long-haul wavelength market has changed from a place where carriers and ISPs contracted for big deals based heavily on anticipated future needs through IRUs to a more 'just in time' environment focused more narrowly on current customer requirements. "This in turn heightens demand for rapid provisioning, facilitated in turn by increasing deployment of optical switching. At the same time, customer interest in carrier optical mesh protection for long-haul waves remains low, while demand for end-to-end access is strong and growing." Gartner Dataquest analysts said a new question mark over this market will be added by emergence of new technology and services allowing SONET lines to more cost-effectively carry data center protocols. Retail enterprise purchases, meanwhile, will increase as a share of the dominant long-haul segment from well under 20 percent of revenue in 2002 to more than 25 percent of revenue in four years. "Wavelengths won't penetrate the larger retail enterprise market in a really accelerated way without more 'killer' applications," Koppman said. "Relatively few end users need the higher reaches of currently available capacity without the emergence of new applications that will drive greater bandwidth demand." Wavelength services, also known as lambdas, are still a relatively emergent market, with fewer than 300 potential customers - carriers, ISPs and huge corporations - in North America, and most standard services having only been introduced in 2001 and 2002. Additional information is available in the Gartner Dataquest Perspective, "Riding the Waves: Lambda Market Update, 2002." This report provides detailed analysis on the development of the wavelength services market through 2006. This information is published by Gartner Dataquest's Worldwide Public Network Services research cluster. This service is targeted at incumbent and next generation carriers and ISPs; traditional and emerging equipment manufacturers; and the financial community. More information about the Worldwide Public Network Services research service can be found on the Gartner Web site at http://www.gartner.com/1_researchanalysis/focus/telecom_fa.html. Additional information on the telecommunications industry will be presented during Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2002, October 6-11 in Orlando, Florida. Gartner Symposium/ITxpo is the IT industry's largest and most strategic conference, providing business leaders with a look at the future of IT. For more information, please visit www.gartner.com/symposium. Members of the media can register by contacting Maria DiMasi at 212-699-2734, or by e-mail at gartnerevents@eurorscg.com. To subscribe to Gartner Dataquest programs, please call 408-468-8009. Reports can be purchase on the Internet at www.gartner.com. Gartner Dataquest is the recognized leader in providing the high technology and financial communities with market intelligence for the telecommunications, semiconductor, computer systems and peripherals, document management, software and services sectors of the global information technology industry. About Gartner |
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Contact: Tom McCall Gartner +1 408 468 8312 tom.mccall@gartner.com |
