Infonetics: 2012 best year ever for broadband CPE

Despite closing the year on a down note, sales of customer premises equipment (CPE) associated with broadband networks reached record levels in 2012, according to Infonetics Research. The market research firm made the statement as it released excerpts from its fourth quarter 2012 (4Q12) and year-end Broadband CPE and Subscribers: PON, FTTH, Cable, and DSL market share and forecast report.

Broadband CPE worldwide revenue shrank 3% sequentially in 4Q12, Infonetics reports. Nevertheless, for the year broadband CPE revenue rose 13%, to $7.7 billion. Cable CPE led the way with revenue growth of 26% year-over-year.

Said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband access and pay TV at Infonetics Research, “Cable operators are gaining significant traction with DOCSIS 3.0 in North America, Europe, Korea, and Japan, and they’re in the early stages of rolling out video gateways that combine DOCSIS CPE with video transcoding capabilities. These gateways allow cable companies to deliver a whole-home, multi-screen service to customers, and we anticipate hearty growth for the devices over the next few years.”

ARRIS maintained its Number 1 position in the DOCSIS 3.0 CPE segment, based on strong EMTA shipments to North American operators. Motorola, Cisco, and NETGEAR occupy the next three market share spots, according to the report.

“WiFi-enabled CPE is really heating up,” adds Heynen. “In 2012, nearly half of all DSL units sold were WiFi enabled, and we’re forecasting this to swell to 74% by 2017. The growth of WiFi-enabled CPE is proof positive that service providers are quickly moving to more integrated devices to control the user experience in the home.”

Despite the positive effect of WiFi on DSL CPE sales, overall DSL shipments dropped 4% in 2012. However, reflecting the need to increase broadband capacity, VDSL CPE shipments climbed 39%, reaching 29 million units.

Meanwhile, Infonetics estimates that the number of FTTH subscribers worldwide reached 57 million in 2012, a bit less than half of cable broadband’s 111 million subscribers. Infonetics expects “ongoing vendor market share shifts” for FTTH CPE in 2013, hinging largely on shipments in China.

Huawei earned the broadband CPE market share leader position for both 4Q12 and the full year, with ZTE close behind. Both vendors benefitted significantly from the FTTH rollouts at China Telecom and China Unicom, Infonetics reports.

Infonetics’ quarterly broadband CPE report provides worldwide and regional market size, vendor market share, forecasts through 2017, analysis, and trends for ADSL and VDSL modems, gateways, and IADs; standard and DOCSIS 3.0 cable modems, gateways, and EMTAs; FTTH ONTs and gateways; residential gateways; PON and Ethernet FTTH ports; and broadband subscribers.

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