This IDC study forecasts the five-year revenue opportunity for Western European long-haul DWDM, metropolitan WDM, and MSPP equipment from 2004 through 2008. The study also identifies the Western European market share leaders in 2003 for the three separate markets.

"Although the long-haul DWDM market segment is expected to remain flat during this forecast period, the total next-generation optical market, consisting of the long-haul DWDM, metro WDM, and MSPP segments, is expected to increase at compound annual growth rate of 12.5% from $997.2 million in 2003 to $1.79 billion in 2008. In the short term, carriers and vendors will further focus on increasing revenue possibilities through new services like Ethernet and storage. These services and traffic growth will further drive the development of the metro and access part of carrier networks." ? Alejandra van de Roer, research analyst in IDC's European Service Provider Infrastructure program