Market Studies
Vol 2: Europe: SDH and Beyond

Published: January 1998

Overview
Overview:
The European Commission mandated the European telecommunications market to be liberalized as of January 1998. A number of countries had begun this process prior to that date. However, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland have been granted extensions. Some of the PTT's will be only partially privatized, with the state maintaining some ownership.

European telecommunications growth is expected to grow 15-20%, even up to 25% in some places over the next five years. A number of countries are installing new fiber and DWDM. Lucent, Ciena, Alcatel, Pirelli, Ericsson, Siemens, Fujitsu, Hitachi and NEC are the major suppliers. All of these companies have European offices, and in some cases manufacturing facilities.

New partnerships have emerged to play dominant roles in the deployment of new equipment and fiber. Alternative carriers have also emerged, opening up further competition. State-owned and private utilities, railroads, construction companies, CATV operators and others are pushing for a slice of the action. Many of these are joint ventures, often with international partners.

Like the United States, metro DWDM is being deployed. For long distance Internet Protocol (IP) over DWDM is being implemented by Swisscom, Racal Telecom, KPN/Qwest, Telia/Telenor, Telemonde and Cable & Wireless.

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