Cable operators and their hybrid-fiber coax (HFC) internet access approach will continue to be the dominant fixed broadband delivery system with a 65% share of the residential market in 2027, predicts analytics firm GlobalData.
Cable’s position will be helped by all that government subsidy money in programs like the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) effort overseen by the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, which has more than $40 billion in broadband subsidies to give out. Then there are the Federal Communications Commission’s Universal Service Fund billions and the COVID-19-related money that agency is overseeing.
In its latest report, United States Fixed Communications Forecast, GlobalData also predicts the residential broadband market will grow from $84.5 billion in 2022 to over $102 billion in 2027, but not with much help from satellite broadband efforts like Elon Musk’s Starlink.
While cable operators will lose some market share over that span due to competition from telco fiber overbuilds, GlobalData predicts cable will hang on to the prime position due to improved HFC.
Fixed wireless is a growing success story, the company said, but it is still expected to represent less than 10% of the market by 2027.
As for the low-earth-orbit satellite fixed wireless services from Starlink and OneWeb, GlobalData predicts they will hardly make a dent in the market at less than 1% share in 2027. ▪️
