According to the Dell'Oro Group, 3Q16 was a big quarter for DOCSIS 3.1, as cable operators built out their infrastructure and invested rapidly in pursuit of gigabit Internet speeds. The third quarter of 2016 was the third consecutive quarter of strong double-digit year-over-year growth for cable infrastructure equipment such as CMTSs. 2016 has been a good year for infrastructure investments, while 2017 is expected to be good for customer premises equipment (CPE) investments.
"The cable CMTS market grew 22% year-over-year in the third quarter. The market is dominated by ARRIS and Cisco, with Cisco's strength in the quarter driving the market," said Alam Tamboli, senior analyst at Dell'Oro. "Cable operators are betting that gigabit speeds will help them penetrate the small enterprise market. In 2017, we expect that DOCSIS 3.1 infrastructure will be more ubiquitous and pervasive throughout cable operators' networks. Spending on cable CPE devices will increase dramatically as cable operators focus on delivering much faster speeds to customers to better compete with telecom operators deploying PON and G.fast technologies. Currently, ARRIS and Technicolor dominate the cable CPE market."
