4/15/2008 -- Forget west; go east, young man -- if you're looking for the epicenter of the exploding optical networking segment, that is.

According to market watcher Infonetics Research, China last year spent more than twice as much as other Asia-Pacific nations on building out its optical infrastructure, dwarfing the optical expenditures of rising Asia-Pacific powers (e.g., India and South Korea) as well as those of other emerging Asia-Pacific potentates.

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In fact, Infonetics reported, China accounted for 43 percent of the more than $3.4 billion that Asia Pacific countries spent on optical gear last year. That's a huge chunk of change, and only part of it can be attributed to China's gargantuan population. After all, India, too, has more than 1 billion citizens. Instead, Infonetics said, it's all about the potential for "teledensity" growth.

"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," said Michael Howard, a principal analyst at Infonetics Research, in a statement. "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."

Infonetics doesn't anticipate a long -- or completely uninterrupted -- boom in China's optical segment, however.

"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," Howard said.

All told, Asia-Pacific accounted for nearly one-third of worldwide telecom capital expenditures, as well as about one-quarter of worldwide optical equipment spending. Japan is the No. 2 spender in the surging optical segment, followed by both India and Korea. Other Asia-Pacific optical giants (i.e., countries with significant optical expenditures) include Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan. --Stephen Swoyer