ZTE has overtaken Alcatel-Lucent to slot just behind leader Huawei in the global optical networking (ON) market. This is the first time that Chinese vendors are holding the top two ranks in ON, according to Ovum.

Ovum’s analysis of Q1 results in the US$14.5b global ON market has highlighted that growth in 100G remains a bright spot as annualised revenues exceeded $1b for the first time ever. However, market growth overall remains difficult and challenging equipment vendors with only Fujitsu posting sequential and year-over-year gains.

“While it is not uncommon for the market to decline going into the first calendar quarter, the decline is worrisome as this is the fifth straight time the market has declined versus the prior year’s quarter, and quarterly revenues are the lowest they’ve been in six years,” said Ron Kline, Network Infrastructure Analyst at Ovum.