CMTSs, Edge QAMs Down; CCAP Looking Up

According to Infonetics Research, the CMTS and edge QAM markets are down, but the CCAP market is looking up. The research house says channel capacity is rising while equipment prices per channel are dropping; good news for cable operators, but not so good for equipment vendors. Infonetics expects CCAP volume to increase in 2014 and to offset per-channel price erosion.

• The global CMTS and edge QAM market declined 4% in 2Q13, to $313 million, as lower-cost CMTS downstream and edge QAM channel shipments dominated the product mix.



• In North America, CMTS and edge QAM revenue was down 27% in 2Q13 from 2Q12, owing to the turn-up of a large number of software licenses.



• Though the first significant deployments of CCAP-capable products began in 2Q13, major CCAP shipments aren’t expected to begin until 2014, when vendors make available integrated broadcast and narrowcast video QAMs and DOCSIS downstreams on the same RF ports.



• Cisco and ARRIS have established themselves as the frontrunners in the CMTS market, but competition is intensifying as other vendors such as Casa Systems vie for market share.