Optical networking and photonics: transceivers, coherent optics, subsea cables, PON, and pluggable optics economics.
by Chris DePuy, 650 Group / September 24, 2026 This week, Meta, NEC, and Sumitomo Electric announced Petal, the first commercial petabit-class transoceanic submarine cable system, linking the US and France across roughly 7,000 km with service expected in 2029. Meta calls it the first multi-core fiber cable deployed at… Read More »Meta’s Petal Subsea Cable Doubles Transatlantic Capacity with Multi-Core Fiber
Data Center Interconnect, Scale Across and Scale Out Drive This Market Incline Village, NV. Sept. 9, 2026 — In a newly released forecast, 650 Group projects the Coherent Lite market will surpass 10 million units within the next three to five years. We expect that there will be multiple drivers… Read More »Coherent Lite Market Expected to Top 10 Million Units in 3-5 Years
The AI traffic boom and Coherent Pluggables were the new themes at this year’s Nokia SRexperts / Wavelengths conference. Since Nokia completed its Infinera acquisition in February 2025, it has made leadership changes to reflect its increasing market presence and expanded product breadth. Notably, David Heard, the President of Network… Read More »Nokia Optical and Routing Conference Highlights
Following Nokia’s Acquisition of Infinera, Four Vendors Represent the Vast Majority of Revenues Incline Village, NV. May 20, 2025 — In a newly released report, 650 Group highlights that the 1Q25 Optical Transport Equipment market experienced a single-digit decline compared to year-ago revenues. The top five vendors in 1Q’25 included… Read More »Optical Transport Equipment Market Experienced Modest Year-Over-Year Decline in 1Q’25
Our take on the US tariff war is that uncertainty reigns today, which will probably result in forecast cuts for many of the companies we research. The longer the trade war continues, the more forecasts will be cut until we reach a steady state. We will have to respond with… Read More »Golden Screw Unavailable and Full Capacity Not Possible
NVIDIA’s GTC 2025 here in San Jose has showcased significant product innovation and a clear roadmap from Blackwell to Rubin, highlighting a yearly cadence of new product announcements. Not to be missed were Quantum (InfiniBand) and Spectrum (Ethernet) CPO announcements. For networking, GTC 2025 focused on scaleout CPO with InfiniBand… Read More »Views from GTC 2025
This week, we attended Cisco’s Packet Optical Networking Conference 2024 (PONC 2024). The conference was mainly for partners and customers, and new products and architectures were the main discussion topics. A year ago, we concluded that Cisco’s Routed Optical Networks (RON) vision, where routers and pluggable coherent modules operate together… Read More »Cisco Packet Optical Networking Conference 2024 – Another Step Forward
On June 27, Nokia announced plans to acquire Optical Transport rival Infinera. The indicative bid was for $2.3B, representing a 37% premium to a six-month volume-weighted price. Additionally, Nokia plans to spin off its Submarine Networks business (which even today uses the historically French-domiciled Alcatel in its name) to a… Read More »Nokia’s Bid To Acquire Infinera May Drive Further Industry Changes
Internet Services and Satellite Services will clash with Telecom Services in the coming years, causing changes to equipment demand. Hyperscalers and Satellite services companies are more vertically integrated (they make more of their own equipment) and, in the future, will deliver more services that compete with Telecom services. Our forecasts,… Read More »Telecom Disruption in Optical and RAN Showing Growing Importance
Cisco Systems held its Packet Optical Network Conference (PONC) Conference in Texas this week. PONC is primarily a customer and reseller-related conference where Cisco shares its latest innovations and some of its customers’ newest network designs. Cisco shared that on a year-to-date basis, it had four times more Routed Optical… Read More »Cisco PONC Conference – Reaching Critical Mass
