CommScope’s CEO says there’s a resurgence in DOCSIS upgrade activity

ANS takes its DOCSIS position

While the DOCSIS 4.0 upgrade will take several years, CommScope’s ANS FDX amplifier deployment with Comcast was a key driver in the unit’s revenue increase during the third quarter.

ANS net sales were $338 million, up 77% year-over-year, and adjusted EBITDA was up 169%. “These increases were primarily driven by the continued deployment of our new DOCSIS 4.0 amplifier and node products,” Treadway said. “Our FDX amplifier deployment with Comcast continues to go well, and this is reflected in our results.”

CommScope comes to the DOCSIS upgrade table with plenty of offerings. For one, it has familiarity with its cable customers' ecosystems and a host of new products for service providers to take advantage of the latest DOCSIS upgrade cycle, as well as evolving their legacy DOCSIS 3.1 networks.

A key element is its demonstration that its DOCSIS elements can be a viable challenger to fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) systems.

During the Cable Labs DOCSIS 4.0 DAA Technology Interop event, CommScope's Evo virtual CCAP platform demonstrated 16.25 Gbps downstream bandwidth across two load-balanced DOCSIS 4.0 modems for multiple manufacturers using various chipsets. In a related test, the CommScope team also achieved downstream speeds of over 9.4 Gbps on a single DOCSIS 4.0 modem.

“These breakthroughs show that a DOCSIS 4.0 network can compete with the fiber-to-the-home speeds,” Treadway said.

In 2026, CommScope plans to introduce amplifiers and remote PHY devices that deliver DOCSIS 4.0 unified operation, supporting both the 1.8 gigahertz extended spectrum DOCSIS and FDX networks with a single device.

Treadway emphasized that CommScope is offering new flexible DOCSIS 4.0 product elements. “As the market shifts towards DOCSIS 4.0, we have positioned our product portfolio to take advantage of many upgrade paths,” he said. “The new products position ANS to maintain performance as the market shifts away from some of our legacy products.”

But CommScope is not turning its back on FTTH. Treadway said it “found traction with our newly released PON portfolio at a major North American service provider, which will deliver multi-gigabit bandwidth and scalable options for growth.”

Wi-Fi 7 drives RUCKUS

CommScope’s RUCKUS division saw a revenue uptick by what it said was strong demand for its Wi-Fi 7 products and subscription services, as well as its go-to-market initiatives.

RUCKUS’ revenue rose 15% year-over-year to $178.5 million, while adjusted EBITDA of $36 million was up $10 million or 38% versus Q3 of 2024.

Like the ANS division, a big driver for RUCKUS was a series of new products. The vendor deployed its first T670 outdoor Wi-Fi access points, a high-density AI-driven Wi-Fi 7 outdoor access point with a programmable directional antenna for large private venues. It also received U.S. federal government certification for its ICX 8200 as one of the first companies to achieve the new FIPS 140-3 certification across its ICX product line, enabling sales to U.S. federal customers.

During the SCTE Tech Expo, CommScope demonstrated its mobile data offload product, which is focused on improving data flow, reducing latency, and increasing gross data offload tonnage. Treadway said that “customers have expressed interest in this technology, and we expect this to scale in 2026.”

Another key area that CommScope continues to find success in is with managed service providers that are targeting the MDU market with managed Wi-Fi services. Managed providers are finding utility with the RUCKUS One® MDU 360 Platform, which offers a unified view of network health, resident experience and service-level performance across every property in the portfolio.

“We have also seen additional traction in the North American service provider market as more customers are interested in our RUCKUS One MDU solutions,” Treadway said. “These solutions take advantage of our RUCKUS One platform, and help managed service providers accelerate time to market and reduce operational costs. This fundamentally changes the deployment economics and delivers faster returns on investment.”

Treadway added that “RUCKUS is well positioned for strong growth in 2026, driven by our Wi-Fi 7 product offering, growing demand, and our strategic go-to-market investments.”

From an overall financial perspective, CommScope delivered third-quarter net sales of $1.63 billion, up 51% year-over-year and adjusted EBITDA of $402 million, a year-over-year increase of 97%.

“These very positive results were generated by strong performance in all of our segments,” Treadway said.

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