Impact of 5G on the Optical Hardware Market (Part 2)

Part 2: The Future Impact of 5G

In Part 1 of this report, Cignal AI explored the lack of increase in optical spending in advance of 5G deployments. Despite early claims about the need for a new optical network to support 5G services, there is no supporting evidence that carriers are building out the requisite optical network today. The reasons why are both economic (no new revenue) and technical (no need for additional bandwidth at this stage). This report examines the future demand for optical hardware resulting from 5G. This report is based on direct discussions with both carriers and optical vendors working in the 5G space.

Several factors impacting future deployments of optical networking equipment in support of 5G include:

• 5G Applications,
• The 5G Backhaul Network
• The Overall Expected Growth of 5G Services