Fairchij: Some clarification re QEOS offering: It is transistor like LED for optical transmit and it does not appear to be monolithic, but assembled. What is truly integrated on one chip appears to be transistor diode.

I'm not so sure about that. At least they are describing this a "Single chip solution with LED/LASER integrated with electronics TIA, LD and other high-speed electronics – 850nm/MMF on to single GaAs chip". Sound quite monolithing, doesn't it? On the other hand it is no surprise to have an integrated laser, since this is gallium arsenide and not silicon.

There are still significant differences, like POET doesn't need a TIA or POET working with SMF instead of MMF, not to mention the famous DOES which ensures an essentially infinite extinction ratio and thus large power savings.