The worldwide broadband CPE market had an okay first quarter, but it didn’t blow the doors off the place either.
Total revenues hit $2.8 billion in the first quarter of 2015, up 3% year-over-year, but down 2% from the previous quarter, IHS found in a fresh report on the sector. Unit shipments, at 54 million, were flat as service providers expanded fixed broadband service capabilities.
"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, in a statement.
DOCSIS 3.1 is the emerging platform for HFC networks that will support multi-gigabit speeds, with initial deployments expected to start later this year. G.fast is a standard that aims to bring gigabit capabilities to DSL networks when delivered over relatively short loop-lengths and is viewed as a platform that could prolong a telco's migration to FTTP.
IHS said the the top performers in 1Q15 were EPON and fixed LTE, which both saw double-digit percentage increases in unit shipments, and noted that the firm is seeing growth in the market for mobile broadband routers, expecting unit shipments there to jump past 622,000 in 2019.
