Week in research: ROADM market dynamics shift; SMBs cherry pick unified communications

ROADM market dynamics shift: Like any market segment, the ROADM WSS component market has seen its share of ups and downs. Despite seeing what may be described as a "pull-back in the first half of 2011," Andrew Schmitt, directing analyst for optical at Infonetics Research, forecasts "strong, sustained growth on an annual basis based on rapid adoption of ROADM-based WDM networking by service providers." After ROADM revenues rose 123 percent in 2010 from 2009, and 39 percent in the second half of 2010, the market contracted by about eight percent in the first half of 2011. Such contraction drove JDSU into the lead beating out Finisar which had been tied for first place in 2010. On a year-over-year basis, the ROADM WSS component market posted solid double-digit revenue increases. Release

Infonetics ROADM market 2011

Egypt's telecom market is ready to explode: Dion Global Solutions' new report "Opportunities in the Egypt Telecom Market" revealed that investment in the country's telecom industry will double by 2012. Fueled by the establishment of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in 1999, a move that created a number of liberalized policies and regulatory laws, telecom is one of the country's fastest growing sectors. By the end of 2010 there were 69.3 million subscribers, a figure that is estimated to reach 95.19 million by 2015. One of the major contributors to growth in recent years has been "significant growth" in the low-income customer segment. Release

SMBs cherry-pick unified communications: While SMBs continue to find utility in new IP-based services like VoIP, conferencing and unified messaging, an IDC Research report argues that only a small percentage of them have actually implemented an end-to-end UC system. Over one-third of small businesses (less than 100 employees) and almost three-quarters of medium sized companies (100-1,000 employees) use at least one UC technology component. What's more, more than 30 percent of SMBs and mid-sized companies have plans to add at least one UC service in the next year. Release

E-mail hacking awareness lacking: Your e-mail system could be compromised and you may not even know it. A new Commtouch study said that even the most careful e-mail users--about 62 percent--are unaware how their accounts have been affected. Less than one-third of users realized their accounts were hacked into, with over 50 percent finding out the breach from their friends. Another 15 percent believed their personal information was stolen after they accessed the Internet via a public terminal or a WiFi hot spot. Article