SAN JOSE, Calif., March 2 -- Worldwide optical network hardware revenue was up 16 percent in the fourth quarter of 2003, but down 15 percent for the year at $8.4 billion, while passive optical network (PON) revenue surged 240 percent from 2002 to 2003 to $182 million, according to Infonetics Research's quarterly worldwide market share and forecast services, Optical Network Hardware and PON Hardware. "The fourth quarter of 2003 was a great quarter for optical hardware, as this segment enjoyed the benefits of an especially big year-end service provider capex flush," said Michael Howard, principal analyst and co-founder of Infonetics Research. "Metro SONET/SDH and WDM were strong in 4Q03, being driven by increased corporate network traffic, storage networking and service provider wireless network backhaul." "PON is growing rapidly in Asia Pacific, especially in Japan, where hundreds of thousands of subscribers are using ePON and aPON," Howard added. "PON is slowly lifting off in North America, mostly in new home builds and in neighborhoods where the copper plant is being rehabilitated. We expect PON to continue expanding rapidly through 2007." According to the report, Alcatel leads the worldwide optical network hardware market in the 2003 fourth quarter, and Fujitsu and Nortel tie for second. Nortel and ADVA remain first and second in the worldwide metro WDM market in 2003. Worldwide 2003 metro WDM revenue was up 34 percent from 2002, showing a healthy, growing metro WDM market, and SONET/SDH is the mainstay optical technology, making up 69 percent of worldwide optical equipment sales in 2003. For more information, visit: www.info.infonetics.com