It looks like Broadcom Corp. (BRCM) – according to Lightreading, is about to enter into the passive optical networking (PON) market, reportedly with a win at Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) that could put the chipmaker in the Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) FiOS project.
While this is something predicted here, the timetable was sooner than expected. This will have a substantial impact on FTTH component and equipment suppliers as well as the carrier currently conducting lab trials with the device.
Discussion with a number of industry participants revealed an unannounced Broadcom GPON program in advanced stages of development with a design win at Alcatel-Lucent.
Broadcom hasn’t announced anything yet however, analyst Andrew Schmitt of Nyquist Capital broke the news with a report issued this morning. Schmitt notes that Broadcom’s arrival is a blow to Freescale Semiconductor Inc. (FSL), which has been AlcaLu’s GPON chip supplier.
The PON chipset market reached $100M during fiscal 2007 but hasn’t reached the growth rates many hoped for. It is clear that Broadcom made the decision to enter this market not for the $100M market size, but for the opportunity to seize the MOCA market and continue to position itself as the chipset supplier for the connected home.
Most of the action in PON remains on the Ethernet side, as GE-PON continues to dominate deployments in Asia.
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