Connectivity

Steady uptake projected for PON, cable broadband equipment

Aug. 5, 2013

5-year industry forecast from Dell'Oro also predicts good growth for VDSL.

Dell’Oro Group predicts annual revenue growth for PON and cable equipment in its most recent Five-Year Forecast report focused on broadband access networking. The technology market research firm says that upgrades will be the driving force for equipment demand through at 2017 as both cable and telecom operators look to increase the bandwidth capabilities of their networks to handle increasing Internet traffic, enable new revenue-generating services, and stay competitive with one another.

“For PON, although we expect China to continue to dominate the market through much of our forecast horizon, we are forecasting Chinese growth to moderate, resulting in single-digit PON revenue growth the next five years versus the previous double-digit growth,” says Steve Nozik, principal analyst of access research at Dell’Oro Group.

Network infrastructure equipment tracked by the forecast includes cable modem termination systems (CMTS), digital subscriber line access multiplexers (DSLAMs) by technology (ADSL, ADSL2+, G.SHDSL, VDSL), and PON optical line terminals (OLTs). Customer premises equipment (CPE) technology covered reflects Voice-over-IP (VoIP) or data-only.

Nozik adds, “For CMTS, the dynamics underlying this market remain strong; despite a weak 2012, and we forecast growth to resume in 2013 and continue through our forecast horizon. For DSL, despite raising our VDSL forecast due to a more optimistic scenario for VDSL vectoring, we still expect total DSL revenues to decline albeit at a slower pace than over the past several years, with VDSL growth only partially offsetting rapidly declining ADSL sales."

The Dell’Oro Group's 5-Year Forecast Report for the broadband access industry covers manufacturers’ revenue, average selling prices, and port/unit shipments for cable, DSL, and PON equipment. Learn more about the report.

See also: FTTH Council urges FCC to advance all-fiber upgrades over legacy copper networks