Consumers constantly call for higher bandwidth and increased signal rates, making service providers feel like they can never keep up with demand. Due to this, investors are pouring money into technology and equipment research to overcome the challenge. In just a few years, this has lead to improvements such as fiber-to-the-antenna, long-term evolution deployments, and up to 400 gigabit Internet connectivity.
According to a new report by Frost and Sullivan, Analysis of the Global Fiber Optic Test Equipment Market, the market revenue for 2013 was $603.8 million and that number is expected to increase to $884.9 million by 2020. Much of this growth is thanks to rollouts in fiber-to-the-antenna, fiber-to-the-tower, distributed antenna systems, and cloud or centralized-radio access networks, yet it also includes fiber optic test equipment.
“The proliferation of electronics and reduction in chip sizes will also augment the demand for innovative test technologies,” said Frost & Sullivan Measurement and Instrumentation Program Manager Sujan Sami in a press release. “One such potential opportunity lies in microstructure fiber and hollow fiber with higher nonlinear limits.”
The possibilities for fiber optics are nearly limitless and there is financing available to help engineers push these boundaries. Fiber optic networks can enable download and upload speeds of 400 times faster than broadband.
For investors looking to get into the fiber optic business, fiber optic network maps and broadband maps can be utilized to analyze existing infrastructure and build out their own fiber optic networks. If you are interested in obtaining telecom GIS data sets for a particular city or metro area, contact GeoTel Communications at (800) 277-2172.
