Though the global economy is in a slowdown, there is no slowing the growth in Internet connection speeds.
A new report from Infonetics Research on the market for 10 gigabit per second (10G), 40G and 100G networking equipment indicates that revenues are on the rise and faster speeds are coming soon.
The company reported that for 2008, the worldwide revenues for 10G will grow to $9.5 billion up from $7.3 billion in 2007. Growth among even faster speeds of connectivity are also predicted to be on the upswing, Infonetics’ report indicated.
The researcher is forecasting growth for 40G to have a compound annual growth rate of 59 percent from 2007 to 2011. Michael Howard, Infonetics‘ principal analyst and co-founder, said he expects service providers will take up 40G in the near term even though the faster 100G speed is also on the horizon.
100G is expected by Infonetics to start making inroads in 2009, though broader adoption and revenues are not expected until 2013, according to the study. Howard added that 100G is important as it will likely be in use until at least 2025.
“100G revenue will overtake 40G revenue in the 2013-2015 timeframe,” Howard told InternetNews.com. “100G will be here in earliest pre-standard form in late 2009, but reasonable prices to drive volumes won’t occur until 2012 or so. The 40G market will begin to wane, but not disappear, in the 2012-2015 timeframe.”
The race toward 100G-capable networks has already begun, with vendors testing implementations. Cisco has tested 100G with Comcast while Infinera and Ixia demoed an operational test at NXTcomm in Las Vegas earlier this year.
Even with the current economic slowdown, Howard is confident his forecasts for growth are accurate.
“Traffic will be affected only in a minor way by the slowdown, and this is accounted for in our forecasts,” he said.
