Worldwide broadband CPE revenue dropped to $2.8 billion in the first quarter of 2015 (1Q15), decreasing 2% sequentially, while unit shipments stayed flat at 54 million as service providers continued to expand their fixed broadband service capabilities in the highly-competitive customer premises equipment market, according to IHS-Infonetics.

“Overall, the CPE market remains strong, with revenue up 3 percent year-over-year. We expect both DOCSIS 3.1 and G.fast to help add momentum to the cable and DSL CPE market segments and FTTH to continue at its current pace, driven by deployments in China, North America and EMEA,” said Jeff Heynen, research director for broadband access and pay TV at IHS-Infonetics.

Author’s Note on G.fast: 

In December 2014, the ITU-T approved the G.9701 (G.fast) specification, which is designed to provide gigabit broadband connection speeds (up to 1 Gbps) over a single twisted pair cable in an existing copper infrastructure. It allows faster deployment of services by enabling the introduction of plug-and-play remote DPUs and G.fast CPE devices self-installed by customers at home.

 The Broadband Forum completed its G.fast equipment plugfest last month, as part of its ongoing program to drive widespread G.fast certification.   Held at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory’s (UNH-IOL) facilities in Durham, New Hampshire, the G.fast plugfest gave vendors developing remote Distribution Point Units (DPUs) and Customer Premises Equipment (CPEs) an opportunity to test and benchmark the interoperability of their products prior to full certification testing.

The forum said that a total of 14 chipset and equipment vendors participated in the event, illustrating the growing level of interest in G.fast technologies following the approval of the ITU-T’S G.fast standard in December 2014.

Participants included ADTRAN GmbH, Alcatel-Lucent, ARRIS, AVM GmbH, Broadcom, Calix Inc., Huawei, Ikanos, JDSU, Lantiq GmbH & Co. KG, Metanoia, Realtek Semiconductor Corporation, Sckipio Technologies and Technicolor. Sparnex Instruments and Telebyte provided additional test and measurement equipment for the event.

AT&T, BT, France Telecom/Orange, Swisscom and Deutsche Telekom are among many network operators planning to deploy G.fast to deliver broadband Internet access over copper.

BROADBAND MARKET HIGHLIGHTS:

• On a year-over-year basis, global broadband CPE unit shipments were up 9% in 1Q15 as operator investments in premium CPE continued.
• Looking at the product segments, the top performers in 1Q15 were EPON and fixed LTE, which both saw double-digit percentage increases in unit shipments. 
• Regional pockets of growth include EPON ONTs and video gateways for cable operators in North America, GPON ONTs in Europe and VDSL CPE in Latin America.
• As service providers use mobile broadband to complement fixed broadband deployments, use cases for mobile broadband routers are anticipated to grow considerably, sending unit shipments to over 622,000 in 2019.

BROADBAND REPORT SYNOPSIS:

The quarterly IHS Infonetics PON, FTTH, Cable, DSL, and Wireless Broadband CPE market research report tracks DSL, cable and FTTH CPE; mobile broadband routers; and residential gateways. The research service provides worldwide and regional market size, vendor market share, forecasts through 2019, analysis and trends. Companies tracked include Alcatel-Lucent, Arris, AVM, Cisco, Comtrend, D-Link, Dasan Networks, Fiberhome, Hitron, Huawei, Mitsubishi, Netgear, OF Networks, Pace, Sagemcom, SMC Networks, Sumitomo, Telsey, Technicolor, TP-Link, Ubee Interactive, Zhone, ZTE, ZyXel, others.

To purchase the report, please visit  www.infonetics.com/contact.asp

Meanwhile, DSL Reports says that AT&T’s ‘Fiber’ Expansion Possibly G.Fast DSL, Still Over-Hyped

“…the press (and Wall Street) are likely dramatically over-estimating the real impact AT&T’s plans are going to have. AT&T’s constantly-reduced fixed-line CAPEX budget makes it perfectly clear that the company’s tip priority is, and will continue to be, wireless.”

In an interesting twist, BTR says that G.FAST MAY SEE MORE NORTH AMERICAN USE IN BUILDINGS THAN OUTSIDE OF THEM.

“North American carriers increasingly see G.fast’s first role as a way to provide high-speed broadband over in-building copper as part of a fiber-to-the-building (FTTB) deployment. This growing consensus calls into question how soon – if at all – North American cable operators will see G.fast deployed to single-family homes in response to their upcoming DOCSIS 3.1 roll outs.”