SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 8, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Infinera (Nasdaq:INFN) confirmed its rapid emergence as a leader in the optical networking market by taking first place for the full year 2007 in a new study of the North American multi-reach DWDM market, and taking fourth place worldwide in that market segment.
According to the new report on the optical networking market released by independent research firm Ovum RHK, Infinera led the North American multi-reach DWDM (dense wavelength-division multiplexing) market in 2007 with a 28% share, compared to 21% in 2006 and just 1% in 2005. Last year was the first year in which Infinera led this market segment. Nokia Siemens and Ciena took second and third place respectively. According to Ovum's global data, Infinera ranked fourth worldwide in 2007, with a 13% share, compared to 9% in 2006 and just 1% in 2005. Infinera invoice shipments in 2007 were $309 million, up 112% over the 2006 level of $146 million, substantially exceeding total market growth of 24% in 2007.
"The company's rise has been spectacular given we have not seen run rates over $200 million from any core DWDM vendor since the bubble in 2001," said Ron Kline, Research Director, Optical Networks at Ovum. "Infinera's quick rise in North America is attributed to solid year over year revenue growth that pushed its rolling 4-quarter total to over $230 million." Multi-reach DWDM is the Ovum RHK category for backbone DWDM optical networking systems that include next generation features such as integrated wavelength switching and suitability for multiple applications spanning metro core, regional, long-haul and ultra-long-haul networks.
Infinera not only grew in revenue and customer reach, it expanded its market breadth with important customer wins in all of its targeted customer segments. In 2007, Infinera:
* ...announced significant additions to its core market of wholesale carriers, including new customers Deltacom, Integra Telecom, 360networks, and FPL Fibernet. * ...made significant gains in the cable sector, supplying four of the five largest cable companies in North America, also announcing a nationwide long-haul network for Cox Communications. * ...announced new customers in the independent telecom sector including Telekenex in California and MidAtlantic Broadband Cooperative in Virginia. * ...extended its reach in the research, education, and government market with wins at BOREAS-Net and the state of New Mexico, while continuing to support Internet2 as it built out its nationwide and metro networks offering connectivity to more than 200 academic and government Internet2 members. * ...established itself as a major provider of optical networks to Internet content companies, a relatively new category of networks experiencing rapid growth in bandwidth needs. Infinera's Internet content customers include Equinix, an international provider of connectivity to many popular video websites, and OVH, which is France's largest web-hosting company.
"Infinera has gone from a new market entrant to number one in North America in three years because our unique architecture-Digital Optical Networks based on large-scale photonic integration-gives our customers benefits and competitive advantages that cannot be achieved with traditional DWDM architectures," said Infinera CEO Jagdeep Singh. "The system's speed and flexibility of deployment, ease of operation, and ability to rapidly turn up new capacity enable service providers to deliver differentiated services and compete more effectively in the telecom services market."
International Progress
On the international side of the business, Infinera's growth last year was driven by new customers including the North China Grid Company, France's OVH, German regional carrier EWETEL, and leading British ISP, Carphone Warehouse.
"When we launched our product, the Infinera DTN, in 2004, we began by targeting the U.S. market first. We have since been expanding our international sales and support capability and as a result have seen increasing penetration of the market globally. We look forward to continued growth internationally," said Mr. Singh.
Rapid Market Growth
According to the latest Ovum data, the optical networking market grew by 24% in 2007 to reach a total of $14.95 billion in worldwide revenue, the fastest annual growth rate since 2000. Worldwide shipments in the multi-reach DWDM segment grew by 51% to $2.3 billion.
"Market growth accelerated in 2007 as carriers worldwide increased spending to keep up with unprecedented demand for core bandwidth capacity from video, IP data, and wireless backhaul applications," said Mr. Kline. "Growth was up in all regions and given the current level of RFP activity the market shows no signs of easing."
The Infinera DTN is the first optical system based on photonic integrated circuits which integrate more than 60 optical devices on a pair of chips. Integration produces significant benefits in terms of cost, space consumption, power consumption, reliability, and scalability. Infinera has leveraged its breakthroughs in photonic integration with an optical system and software to create a network architecture, Bandwidth Virtualization(tm), which puts a minimum of 100 Gigabits/second of capacity throughout the network on day one, and makes it extremely simple and cost-effective for service providers to rapidly provision and reconfigure that capacity, and gain competitive advantage in supplying bandwidth services to their customers.
The Infinera DTN is a Digital ROADM for long-haul and metro core networks, combining high-capacity DWDM transport, integrated digital bandwidth management, and GMPLS-powered service intelligence in a single platform.
About Infinera
Infinera provides Digital Optical Networking systems to telecommunications carriers worldwide. Infinera's systems are unique in their use of a breakthrough semiconductor technology: the photonic integrated circuit (PIC). Infinera's systems and PIC technology are designed to provide optical networks with simpler and more flexible engineering and operations, faster time-to- service, and the ability to rapidly deliver differentiated services without reengineering their optical infrastructure. For more information, please visit www.infinera.com.
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This press release contains certain forward-looking statements based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on information available to Infinera as of the date hereof; and actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied, due to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding Infinera's expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future, such as the benefits and capabilities of our products and the Digital Optical Network's architecture, that the DTN gives customers benefits and competitive advantages that cannot be achieved with traditional DWDM architectures, that the speed and flexibility of deployment, ease of operation are highly valuable differentiators, and that we continue to make progress with Tier 1 providers. Such forward-looking statements can be identified by forward-looking words such as "anticipated," "believed," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should," "will," and "would" or similar words. The risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements include aggressive business tactics by our competitors, our dependence on a single product, our ability to protect our intellectual property, claims by others that we infringe their intellectual property, our manufacturing process is very complex, product performance problems we may encounter, our dependence on sole or limited source suppliers, our ability to respond to rapid technological changes, our ability to maintain effective internal controls, the ability of our contract manufacturers to perform as we expect, a new technology being developed that replaces the PIC as the dominant technology in optical networks, general political, economic and market conditions and events, including war, conflict or acts of terrorism; and other risks and uncertainties described more fully in our annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 19, 2008, our public announcements and other documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. These statements are based on information available to us as of the date hereof and we disclaim any obligation to update the forward-looking statements included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.