Huawei ranked first for GPON Networks in EMEA

Huawei leads the market in terms of market share, accounting for nearly half of all the ports delivered to EMEA markets.

The new 'PON and FTTH Equipment and Subscribers' report saw major uptakes of GPON ports around the world, with about 1m GPON ports shipped globally, up 338% in 2008 year-on-year.

This makes GPON the fastest growing ultra-broadband access technology. GPON deployments in Europe have also gained traction and Infonetics predicts that GPON will be the dominant PON technology used for deep fiber deployments.

"The GPON market is just beginning to take off, with deployments in North America, and a smaller, but growing base in EMEA and APAC. The race for worldwide and regional leadership in terms of GPON market share will ebb and flow with new contracts and new deployments. Huawei has taken an early lead in EMEA, thanks to its traction among operators in the Middle East and Europe, who are deploying both GPON and Ethernet FTTH to their residential and business subscribers,"

said Jeff Heynen, Directing Analyst, Broadband and Video, Infonetics Research.

"Huawei is delighted to have assumed the leadership position in the competitive EMEA GPON market and we are pleased that operators are embracing our innovative IP network solutions which are generating substantial business opportunities and value," said Ihab Ghattas, Assistant President, Middle East Region, Huawei Technologies. "Our terabit access platform greatly simplifies the network architecture while protecting customers' long term investment by supporting a smooth upgrade to 10G PON. That's why six of the world's top 10 operators have chosen Huawei to build their next generation ultra-broadband networks."

In 2008, Huawei has partnered with all the major European operators on their GPON projects, including Deutsche Telekom, British Telecom, Telecom Italia, and Portugal Telecom. Huawei has deployed the world's largest GPON FTTH network for Etisalat in the Middle East and Africa and is the principle GPON partner for several key operators in the region such as STC.

GPON is an optical fiber access technology designed for the delivery of higher-capacity broadband services and a greater coverage footprint than what can be provided by the legacy Digital Subscriber Loop (DSL) systems.