Cable companies around the globe continue to invest in network infrastructure to meet consumer demand for broadband internet access and better tiered service offerings.
Infonetics Research reported that DOCSIS channel shipments rose to record levels in 2014 -- that's up 114 percent to 4.8 million worldwide -- as cable operators continue to improve their networks to offer services to customers at ever-higher speeds.
Their fourth quarter 2014 (4Q14) and year-end CCAP, CMTS, and Edge QAM Hardware market study tracked cable broadband subscribers and equipment -- including converged cable access platforms (CCAPs), cable modem termination systems (CMTSs), coaxial media converters (CMCs) and edge quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) channels.
"The continued growth of DOCSIS channel shipments is a strong sign of operators ongoing investment to ramp DOCSIS bandwidth and services like IP video by splitting optical nodes and reducing service group sizes via CCAP," said Jeff Heynen, principal analyst at Infonetics Research.
Other highlights from the market study include:
Infonetics Research reported that DOCSIS channel shipments rose to record levels in 2014 -- that's up 114 percent to 4.8 million worldwide -- as cable operators continue to improve their networks to offer services to customers at ever-higher speeds.
Their fourth quarter 2014 (4Q14) and year-end CCAP, CMTS, and Edge QAM Hardware market study tracked cable broadband subscribers and equipment -- including converged cable access platforms (CCAPs), cable modem termination systems (CMTSs), coaxial media converters (CMCs) and edge quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) channels.
"The continued growth of DOCSIS channel shipments is a strong sign of operators ongoing investment to ramp DOCSIS bandwidth and services like IP video by splitting optical nodes and reducing service group sizes via CCAP," said Jeff Heynen, principal analyst at Infonetics Research.
Other highlights from the market study include:
- Globally, CCAP, CMTS, edge QAM and CMC equipment revenue totaled $493 million in 4Q14, an 11 percent sequential increase.
- For the full-year 2014, worldwide sales of CCAP, CMTS, edge QAM and CMC gear grew 27 percent from the prior year, to $1.7 billion.
- 2014 will be remembered as a transitional year from traditional CMTS to provisional CCAP deployments: From 2013 to 2014, CCAP revenue increased 997 percent to $1.4 billion, while CMTS revenue dropped 84 percent to $155 million.
- The transition from CMTS to CCAP resulted in market share shifts during 2014. Arris dominated the cable broadband market, capturing 48 percent of global revenue.
- In the key market of North America, DOCSIS channel shipments were up 139 percent in 2014 over the previous year, and revenue was up 35 percent.
- Infonetics expects the pending merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable to have a direct impact on the North American region in the early part of 2015, exacerbating the usual first quarter slowness.
- North American CCAP, CMTS, CMC and edge QAM channel shipments are forecast to drop 7 percent sequentially in 1Q15.