Taiwan-based optical communications component makers expect demand momentum for their products for related 5G applications in China to resume soon as the Chinese government has urged an acceleration of 5G deployments in order to push online consumption activities in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, according to industry sources.
China Mobile is likely to kick off in April its second-phase bidding projects for the procurement of 5G base stations. The firm aims to install up to 300,000 5G base stations by year-end 2020.
China Unicom and China Telecom will jointly set up 100,000 5G base stations in the first half of 2020 with the number to increase to 250,000 by the end of the third quarter, the sources indicated.
While shipments of 5G devices for the first-phase procurement projects from some key suppliers such as Wuhan-based Huagong Tech and Accelink Technologies have been delayed due to the virus, the sources expect related shipments to return to normal levels at the end March or early April.
Taiwan-based LandMark Optoelectronics, a specialist for epitaxial wafers and VCSEL components, has disclosed that orders for 25G laser products it has received for the first quarter of 2020 are higher than those it landed a quarter earlier, with the pace of order growth likely to accelerate in the second quarter.
Fellow VCSEL component company TrueLight said it will kick off shipments of 25G devices for 5G base stations by the end of the second quarter.
However, the company expects demand for 10G devices to continue growing robustly in the first half of 2020, with related shipments, to account for over 40% of total revenues in 2020.
