REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Aug. 24 -- The total optical transport equipment market grew nine percent in the second quarter of 2004, compared to the same period in 2003, according to a report from Dell'Oro Group. In the 2004 second quarter, the North American market declined five percent after four consecutive quarters of growth, while the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) market grew 33 percent as PPTs such as Telecom Italia boosted purchases of optical transport equipment to support increased broadband adoption, the market analysis company said. "In 2Q04, Alcatel and Nortel were the leaders in the optical transport market, and the only two vendors with greater than 10 percent market share," said Jimmy Yu, senior analyst for Optical Transport Research at Dell'Oro Group. "Alcatel took advantage of widespread broadband adoption to lead sales of SONET/SDH and optical switch equipment, while Nortel held the advantage in the dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) segment, with strong sales of the OM5200 in North America." For more information, visit: www.delloro.com