According to the Dell'Oro Group, PON and DOCSIS 3.1 cable equipment sales pushed the broadband access market up 13% year-over-year in 1Q16. The availability of DOCSIS 3.1 compatible platforms spurred strong investment in cable access concentrators, the research house says.
"Both PON and cable revenue grew double digits year-over-year," said Alam Tamboli, senior analyst at Dell'Oro. "For PON, Huawei, Nokia, and ZTE were, in rank order, the top vendors. Nokia was able to secure the second-rank over the past two quarters with strength in North America. Meanwhile, all three vendors continued to do well in China. After a small decline in 2015, the cable market rebounded in the first quarter of 2016. Cable access concentrators drove the market with revenues growing almost 50% year-over-year. Both ARRIS and Cisco, the two largest cable access concentrator vendors, saw significant increases in demand for their flagship platforms. Both of these platforms have been available for over a year now and are compatible with DOCSIS 3.1, the next generation of technology that will enable cable operators to easily deploy gigabit services."