First quarter 2015 broadband CPE revenues, units gain versus year ago

Makers of broadband customer premises equipment (CPE) saw good news in the first quarter of 2015 – as long as they looked back far enough for a frame of reference, says a new report from IHS (NYSE: IHS). Compared to the year-ago quarter, revenues in 1Q15 climbed 3% and shipments rose 9%. Sequentially, however, revenue shrank 2% to $2.8 billion on flat unit shipments of 54 million, according to the market research firm.

IHS sees the glass as half full. "Overall, the CPE market remains strong," says Jeff Heynen, research director for broadband access and pay TV at IHS and author of the report. "We expect both DOCSIS 3.1 and G.fast to help add momentum to the cable and DSL CPE market segments and FTTH to continue at its current pace, driven by deployments in China, North America, and EMEA."

Shipments of EPON and fixed LTE terminals led the way during the first three months of the year. Both CPE types enjoyed double-digit percentage increases in unit shipments. EPON ONTs and video gateways were particularly popular among cable operators in North America, according to the market research firm's quarterly "IHS Infonetics PON, FTTH, Cable, DSL, and Wireless Broadband CPE." GPON optical network terminal (ONT) shipments were strong in Europe and VDSL CPE proved popular in Latin America.

The report calls for VDSL and G.fast CPE shipments to grow at the expense of ADSL units (see graph above). IHS also expects shipments of mobile broadband routers to grow significantly, with unit shipments exceeding 622,000 in 2019.

The CPE report tracks with a recently released report on broadband aggregation equipment, which revealed that sales of such broadband gear totaled $2.1 billion in the first quarter, up 14% year-on-year (see "").

The "IHS Infonetics PON, FTTH, Cable, DSL, and Wireless Broadband CPE" report covers DSL, cable, and FTTH CPE; mobile broadband routers; and residential gateways. The research service provides worldwide and regional market size, vendor market share, forecasts through 2019, analysis, and trends.

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