An estimated total of 264,225 establishments comprise the midsize to large business segment, which is defined to include physical locations with more than 75 employees. Proximity to available fiber is an important supply-side factor in projecting the rollout of broadband services, said Rosemary Cochran, principal of Vertical Systems Group. Overall, the percentage of business customers using dedicated connections to the Internet is projected to double within the next two years, driven by the accessibility of optical access, in addition to increasing availability of digital subscriber line, cable modem and other emerging technology alternatives. PONs offer carriers the opportunity to consolidate leased line operations and provision bandwidth much more quickly and cost-effectively than other technologies. As the demand for bandwidth on access networks increases, carriers will continue to examine technologies that deliver speed and performance at competitive pricing.
PONs appear to fit that role.
Bandwidth capacity in the core transport network and office LANs has been expanding to handle Internet-stimulated demand, but by and large, the access network remains a bottleneck for broadband digital services, said Dong Liu, strategic marketing manager for analog networking and interface products at Lucent. Service providers worldwide are eyeing PONs as an economical and viable solution to breaking this bottleneck and providing the needed capacity. RHK reports specific product segments will exhibit triple-digit growth year over year.