We've got some great news to do with our optical solutions portfolio which you've probably been reading a bit about already in posts like this one that talked about our recent 40G win with SK broadband, 40G-ready win with RoEduNet, and the SCinet 100G demo .

 

Yesterday, International research firm Ovum RHKissued a press release on their latest report detailing the 40G/100G market, where they single out Nortel's technology and leadership. The report, called "Global 40G/100G Market Update," said that a carrier recently told Ovum that "Nortel's optical performance is head and shoulders above the others" and that Nortel's DP QPSK technology is highly regarded by carriers and competitors.

 

It's no wonder we use an abbreviation here. DP QPSK, I just learned, stands for Dual Polarization Quadrature Phase Shift Keying and it allows 40G operation over a 10G network. Helping service providers maximize their dollars and simplify their network upgrades, Nortel's Adaptive Optical Engine is built around DP QPSK to offer carriers a simple, cost-effective upgrade path to 40G and 100G over existing 10G networks and fiber.

 

This is good news because Ovum's report says that providing a 40G to 100G upgrade path is critical for success and while other vendors are playing catch-up, Nortel has an edge in this technology with an already available 40G solution. Nortel's 40G solution has been generally available since April 2008 and we have over 30 customer contracts.

 

Ovum's report says that 40G is a viable market that will "grow significantly in 2009." With Global revenue for 40G line cards in 2007 at $178 million, Ovum expects the market to grow a whopping 48% annually through 2013.

 

It looks like Ovum is not the only one thinking about the huge growth of broadband. A recent article in Fierce Telecom says that there are now more than 400 million global broadband subscribers - a long way from the 57,000 subscribers recorded in 1998! This is no surprise considering that people are uploading ten hours of video onto YouTube every minute and following major world events through online video - take for example the recent US election during which CNN, Fox News, CNBC, ABC News, BBC, CBC and nearly any other major broadcaster provided some type of online election coverage, many of them streaming their full election night programming over the Internet. As this trend continues, service providers are recognizing the need to evolve their networks to keep up with these rising bandwidth demands and according to Ovum's recent report, it looks like Nortel is ahead of the pack with a solution that can help providers go from 10G to 40G to 100G to deliver the bandwidth their customers crave.