In 2007, China's spending on optical network hardware was more than double Japan's, and dwarfed the optical spending of India, the Republic of Korea, and all other countries in Asia Pacific, according to a new report from market analyst firm Infonetics Research.

The report says China represents 43% of the $3.4 billion spent on optical hardware in 2007 by Asia Pacific countries.

"China has over 1.3 billion people, yet only about 500 million mobile subscribers and 51 million broadband subscribers, so they have lots of room for mobile, broadband, and teledensity growth. The Chinese government considers telecom infrastructure an important part of their ability to compete, setting a goal of 75 million broadband users by 2008 to help present the 'new China' to the rest of the world for the Beijing Olympics. Reports from China indicate a telecom restructuring may take place soon, quite possibly in 2008, which would slow capital spending for a year or so during the restructurings, mergers, and acquisitions, then spending will resume," said Michael Howard, principal analyst at Infonetics Research.