Survey Sez: CMTS, Edge QAM, PON Revenues Up

“The cable broadband market ended 2011 on a high note, both for the quarter and the year and both for revenue and port shipments,” says Jeff Heynen, directing analyst/Broadband Access and Video at Infonetics Research. “Even though Verizon and AT&T have slowed their fixed broadband network rollouts, North American MSOs are continuing theirs, resulting in 94-percent total CMTS port growth in the region in 2011.”

In fact, every region saw port growth in 2011 as cable operators worldwide continue their DOCSIS 3.0 transformations, he adds.

On the PON side, the analyst notes, “Global PON equipment revenue shot up 27 percent in the fourth quarter from the previous quarter, led by healthy increases in EPON and GPON shipments in China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore. China alone set a record with the first billion-dollar PON quarter in the country.”

He continues, “Meanwhile, spending on both PON and DSL equipment in Latin America exploded in the fourth quarter, helping the region finish off the 2011 year with phenomenal yearly growth in both segments. Operators in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay are all in heavy competition with cable operators to expand their serving areas and the speeds they offer.”

Here are a few more point regarding Infonetics’ CMTS and edge QAM findings:

>> Combined CMTS and edge QAM revenue grew 5 percent in 4Q11, ending the year on a high note, up 17 percent from 4Q10.
>> For the full year, CMTS and edge QAM manufacturer revenue is up 6 percent, to $1.7 billion.
>> Global CMTS port shipments hit record levels in 4Q11 and are up 48 percent for the full year.
>> CMTS revenue is not keeping pace with port shipments because revenue per downstream continues to drop (down 31 percent in 2011) as more high-density downstream-only cards are introduced and as the market continues to shift toward license-based upgrades in regions outside North America.
>> Cisco is the only of the four CMTS equipment leaders that gained CMTS revenue market share in 2011, growing from 51 percent to 59 percent of the global market, just one point shy of its all-time high.

On the PON, FTTH and DSL front, the group found:

>> The overall broadband aggregation equipment market (DSL, PON and FTTH) had its biggest quarter on record in 4Q11, with revenue up 15 percent sequentially to $2.3 billion, driven by heavy spending in Asia and Latin America.
>> The market also had its biggest year on record, up 24 percent to $8.4 billion in 2011 compared with 2010.
>> In the fourth quarter, Huawei had its biggest broadband-aggregation revenue quarter on record, and Alcatel-Lucent passed ZTE to take back the Number Two spot for the first time in a year.