REDWOOD CITY, Calif.—A new report from Dell’Oro Group indicates that the market for optical transport technologies widely used in telecommunications and broadband services declined 6 percent year-over-year in fourth quarter 2023 due to reduced demand in North America, Europe, and Japan.
“Excess inventory, worsening macroeconomic conditions, and higher interest rates were the main reasons cited for the decline in these regions,” said Jimmy Yu, vice president at Dell’Oro Group. “North American service providers accumulated excess inventory after splurging on equipment in 2021 and 2022. We estimate that North American optical equipment sales increased nearly 30 percent in that period. Hence, a decline in 2023 was expected to occur. Inventory build-up was less of an issue in Europe and Japan. The economy, however, was on unstable ground for the past year. Europe's GDP is expected to be up only half a percent in 2023 and Japan has technically entered an economic recession in the second half of 2023,” added Yu.
