JULY 8, 2010 -- An increasing focus on FTTH and VDSL2 deployments has put the squeeze on the demand for ADSL customer premises equipment (CPE), says market research firm Infonetics Research in its first quarter (1Q10) Broadband CPE and Subscribers market forecast report. The report tracks DSL and cable broadband CPE and subscribers, voice CPE, residential gateways, and voice terminal adapters.
"The first quarter of the year is usually one of the worst for the broadband customer premise equipment market, as net subscriber additions and new CPE sales slow after the much better third and fourth quarters. This quarter was also hurt by lingering economic difficulties worldwide, which are keeping many consumers from upgrading their existing CPE to support new services,” says Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband and video at Infonetics.
“In particular, we saw a big drop in ADSL CPE in 1Q10, as operators are focused on deploying FTTH and VDSL2 services and are spending less to market their basic broadband services. All in all, 2010 will be a difficult year for CPE vendors, as operators see fewer new subscribers and will do what they can to use their existing inventory rather than purchase new equipment," Heynen predicts.
Other 1Q10 broadband CPE highlights in the report include:
- In 1Q10, the worldwide broadband CPE market totaled $967.3 million, down 13% from 4Q09.
- After moving back into first place last quarter after a difficult early 2009, Technicolor (Thomson) held on to the top spot in worldwide total broadband CPE revenue, just ahead of Huawei and of Motorola.
- Due to slowing cable subscriber growth and the fact that many cable subscribers will hold on to their DOCSIS 2.0 CPE for a long time, DOCSIS 3.0 CPE sales are expected to take a hit.
- Infonetics expects VDSL CPE sales to soften as many major telcos move to direct FTTH, rather than via FTTB or FTTN and VDSL2