The proportion of cable customer-premises equipment that's DOCSIS 3.0-enabled is nearing the halfway mark, with research firm Dell'Oro Group estimating that 3.0 CPE penetration nearly doubled in the third quarter of 2011 from the year-earlier period.
In the third quarter of 2011, DOCSIS 3.0-enabled CPE was 43% of total cable CPE compared with 23% in Q3 2010, according to Dell'Oro Group. The total cable market size in Q3 2011 was $333 million, the firm estimated.
Arris told Wall Street analysts that it shipped 1.4 million customer-premises equipment devices in the third quarter -- that and for the first time, more than 50% of the vendor's CPE devices (53%) shipped included DOCSIS 3.0 capability versus 36% in Q2 2011.
"We're getting closer to the day when the current installed base of DOCSIS 2.0 and earlier modems are going to become obsolete," Arris chairman and CEO Bob Stanzione said on the company's Oct. 27 earnings call. Operators are now "willing to spend the extra few dollars to install DOCSIS 3.0 devices."
According to Dell'Oro Group, in the third quarter, Arris was the lead vendor in terms of total cable CPE unit shipments, followed by Cisco Systems, Motorola Mobility, Technicolor and Ubee Interactive.
