According to a report by the Dell'Oro Group, investments in cable infrastructure are projected to reach $2 billion by 2023. Distributed, virtualized architectures are expected to transform cable broadband networks.
"Global cable operators are investing heavily in distributed access architectures to make their networks more efficient, offer premium bandwidth, and stay ahead of fiber-based competitors," said Jeff Heynen, research director at Dell'Oro. "Today's investments in DAAs will prepare cable operators for a future of 10 Gbps services using a combination of extended spectrum DOCSIS, full duplex DOCSIS 3.1 and, ultimately, fiber-to-the-home."
Other findings indicate:
- Sales of cable broadband access equipment are expected to increase from $1.5 billion in 2019 to $2 billion in 2023, driven by spending on remote PHY and MACPHY devices, as well as virtual CCAP platforms. Spending on cable equipment is expected to grow faster than PON equipment over the same period.
- XGS-PON is expected to outpace NG-PON2 deployments throughout our forecast period, owing to lower component and equipment costs.
- VDSL Profile 35b and Gfast are expected to offset some - not all - of the revenue loss from declining ADSL port shipments. Some major Gfast deployments are already seeing signs of shrinking, as governments lobby operators to increase their investments in fiber.