3C Featured News   Industry Focus Report

During the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, the new generation of mobile networks, the next generation of the Internet, the integration of the three networks, the Internet of Things, and cloud computing have become the key areas for the development of the communications industry, and the optical fiber transmission technology that supports all these is expected to usher in a new Orgasm.

As one of the world's largest professional exhibitions of optoelectronics, the annual optical expo is undoubtedly a big stage for closely observing the industrial ecosystem. Optical Expo this year attracted more than 500 optical communication companies to participate in the exhibition, of which optical device manufacturers are still a major force.

Technology leap

With the rise of "Broadband China" to the national strategic level and the testing and introduction of new technologies by operators, the enthusiasm of optical device manufacturers for the next-generation optical access network and high-speed line technology has continued to rise, achieving an overall leap in technology.

At this optical expo, NG PON and 40G / 100G transmission technology are undoubtedly the latest hot spots. In terms of NG PON, Hisense Broadband launched the next-generation SFR + LR optical module products; Yifeiyang focused on the development of 10G XFP 120km long-distance optical modules; Source Photonics focused on the display of 10G EPON and XG-PON N1 / N2 solutions .

In the field of 40G / 100G, there are also many optical device manufacturers launching products together. For example, Sauls Optoelectronics introduced three new products: 40G SFP + LR4 and SR4, 40G CFP FR / LR4 / ER4, 100G LR4; ColorChip launched 40GBASE-LR4 QSFP + optical transceiver module; Hisense Broadband demonstrated the new CFP 40G pluggable optical module Xu Chuang launched the 40G QSFP + series products; Yifeiyang exhibited two 40G optical modules such as 40G QSFP-SR4.

Wei Leping, director of the China Telecom Science and Technology Commission, pointed out at the concurrent forum of the exhibition that in 2013, China ’s largest paragraph capacity reached 12T, and the demand for 100G began to dominate, and it is expected to enter large-scale applications around 2015. From the situation of the other two operators, the 10G transmission commonly used in the existing network has become increasingly difficult to meet demand.

In addition, the field of PLC splitter chips, which has been monopolized by South Korea and Japan for a long time, also appeared in China. Manufacturers such as Hangzhou Tianye and Shijia Photonics released their respective wafers and chip products during the exhibition. The PLC splitter is the core passive component of FTTH. Most of the profits are controlled by foreign chip manufacturers. The localization of the chip will have important significance.

Stress still

Although the market size is growing, C114 finds that most optical device manufacturers are under the pressure of "incremental and not increasing revenue", and even feel that "one year is not as good as one year". Based on the perspectives of most manufacturers, low industry concentration, operator concentration, serious low-end homogenization, and irrational low-price competition are the main causes.

Another analyst said that the operator's network investment in the first half of this year was less than expected, and it is expected to improve in the second half. According to the semi-annual report data of the operators, the capital expenditure plans of the three major operators in 2012 totaled approximately 285.9 billion, and the actual completion of the first half was approximately 123.3 billion, accounting for 43.1%. Recently, operators have begun to gather intensively. Recently, China Mobile ’s dry-amplifiers, passive devices, and wiring products have been gathered. Routers such as China Telecom ’s IPTV and CDMA have been launched successively, showing that operators ’investment or acceleration in the second half of the year Broadband networks are the focus of operator capital expenditures.

Many manufacturers have pointed out that operators have set a certain percentage reduction in the unit price, but in order to "live", manufacturers are still rushing, but the final result is that the manufacturers win the bidding and then postpone, delay or even not deliver. From the perspective of integrated supply, the price pressure of operators' collective procurement will also be passed on from the system manufacturers to the device manufacturers.

A manufacturer also said that today, with excess production capacity of low-end devices, everyone knows that we must move to the high-end, but participating in collections with small profits and losses makes it impossible for companies to get blood transfusions, and they can only linger on the low-end for a long time. At the same time, C114 also learned that manufacturers that initiate low-price competition do not rule out consideration at the capital market level, hoping to use volume to stimulate stock prices or attract investment.

Previously, the industry has always had the view that although China has grown into the world's largest optical communications market and has also bred two important players in the global optical network communications market, Huawei and ZTE, but China's optical communications industry is in terms of core chips and devices. It has always been a short board. Fortunately, the regulatory authorities have realized this, and will provide key support for 40G / 100G high-speed transmission, key optical network equipment, and optical components in the forthcoming broadband China strategy.