Preface • Work summary

Looking back at 2025, the optical fiber cable industry, driven by both technological breakthroughs and market, faces both opportunities and challenges. The global 5G network coverage continues to deepen, and the demand for AI computing power explodes. The high-speed interconnection between data centers drives the demand growth of new types of optical fibers such as ultra-low loss optical fiber and multi-core optical fiber. The commercialization process of multi-core optical fiber and few-mode optical fiber accelerating, and the collaborative design of optical modules and optical fibers further reduces system power consumption. Emerging application scenarios such as submarine optical cables and space optical communication are gradually being implemented, and the whole industry is in a stage of "stable quantity and improved quality".

With generative AI technology becoming a key driving force and important transformative strength, the global telecom industry is facing multi-dimensional opportunities and challenges, and technological innovation and strategic transformation have become the breakthrough path for carriers.

Despite the stability of global 5G investment and the decline in the scale of capital expenditure of operators, telecom operators generally face the pressure of slow revenue in traditional businesses, but computing power networks, 5G-A and other emerging technologies are becoming new revenue growth points for operators. In addition, there are diverse development trends in different regions, and the demand growth in some regions, such as North America and the Middle East, is still an important driving factor for the development of the telecom market.

Since 2006, the "Global and China Optical Communication Enterprises Competitiveness Evaluation" sponsored by the Institute of Network Telecom Information has been held 19 years, fully presenting the industry pattern and the changes of enterprise competitiveness through detailed data. The "Top 10 Global Most Competitive Optical Communication Enterprises in 2025" list clearly reflects the current competitive situation of global and Chinese optical communication enterprises.

In the global optical fiber and cable list, the top ten global manufacturers occupy 91.74% of the market share in the optical fiber and cable market, showing strong competitive advantages. The top ten companies are from five countries, including the United States (CORNING), China (YOFC, HTGD, FiberHome,ZTT), Japan (Furukawa Electric/OFS, Sumitomo Electric, Fujikura), Italy (Prysmian) and India (Sterlite). Among them, Chinese enterprises occupy four seats, accounting for 14.57%, 11.24%, 11.43% and 10.19% of the global market share respectively. Indian enterprise Sterlite ranked again, accounting for about 3.80% of the market share.

From the perspective of the competitiveness index of financial data of enterprises, the American enterprise CORNING has a strong competitiveness index of 2.4253 far ahead of the rest. YOFC and HTGD are ranked second and third with competitiveness index of 1.4375 and 1.2815 respectively. ZTT and FiberHome are ranked fourth and fifth with competitiveness index of 1.2800 and 0.8708, showing strong market competitiveness. The competitiveness index of other enterprises in the top 10 are not quite different, with less than 0.1 difference between Furukawa Electric/OFS and FiberHome, which shows the fierce competition.

In the field of optical transmission and network access equipment, the global market competition pattern in 2025 is basically stable, with Huawei ranking the first with a global market share of 21.63%, followed by Nokia, ZTE, CIENA, and FiberHome, with market share of 8.07%, 10.16%, 12.45%, and 7.94% respectively. Huawei, a Chinese enterprise, with a competitiveness index of 3.9807, showing a significant lead advantage.

 

In the list of the top 10 global most competitive companies in optical devices and optical modules in 2025, Zhongji Innolight is at the top with a market share of 23.40%, followed by Coherent, BROADCOM, Accelink, Eoptolink, and Lumentum, with market share of 16.87%, 11.06%, 8.46%, 8.84%, and 9.99% respectively, ranking them the top six of the list. For more details in the company market share of global optical device and optical module, please see the chart below.

 

 

The Chinese optical fiber and cable market is slowing down, but it still has broad development potential.

With the construction of domestic network and the development of the digital economy, the construction of 5G and gigabit optical network has driven the steady growth of total length of optical cable lines. Till the end of March in 2025, the total length of optical cables in the country reached 74.54 million kilometers, with an increase of 13.7%. In the first half year of 2025, the domestic optical cable output was 0.125 billion core kilometers, with a decrease of 2.9%, but the decline narrowed. The three major operators have successively launched large-scale centralized, which is expected to lead an output recovery in the second half of the year.

In terms of the competitive pattern, the top ten Chinese manufacturers in the optical fiber and cable industry account for about 93% of the market share, a high level of concentration. In 2025, the total revenue of the major listed optical fiber and cable companies reached approximately 42.6 billion yuan, with an increase of about 5%. As the domestic market stabilizes, companies are accelerating the expansion of overseas markets. In the first half of 2025, China's optical fiber and cable exports reached a scale of 76.2 million core kilometers, with an increase of 35.44%, mainly exported to Europe, Asia, and South America.

The demand for new optical cables continues to grow. G.654.E fiber, with its large effective area and low attenuation characteristics, has become the first choice for 400G/800G and future Tbit/s ultra-high-speed transmission. The research and development as well as industrialization process of new fibers such as space-division multiplexing fibers and hollow-core fibers are accelerating, bringing new imagination space to the market pattern of optical communication.

 

 

 

Finally, all the members of the review team of “Network Telecom” and “Annual Ranking Event of the Top 10 Enterprises in the Optical Communications of China & Global Market would like to express heartfelt gratitude for the participation and cooperation from the industry colleagues over the past 19 years.