Digital Lifescapes

Traditional wireline communication investment has stagnated in numerous developed markets around the globe, but there's still some upside opportunity for new infrastructure deployment within the emerging markets. Case in point: the number of fixed lines for voice and Internet services in Latin America will reach 163.8 million in 2015, that's an increase of 2.3 percent over 2014 deployments, according to the latest market study by Pyramid Research. This represents a broadband penetration rate of just 12 percent and a voice telephony penetration rate of 17 percent of the population. Clearly, the forward-looking growth potential is still significant. While the overall number of fixed lines will grow at a CAGR of 2.1 percent, fiber-to-the-home or business (FTTH/B) connections will increase at a CAGR of 34.9 percent over the next five years. "Growth within fixed communications markets will be mainly driven by the increase in broadband lines," said Marcelo Kawanami,...

The number of European households within a reach of high-speed broadband of at least 30 Mbps download speeds reached 62 percent of EU homes at the end of 2013, according to a new market study by IHS. The study, sponsored by the European Commission (EC), also shows that 4G LTE wireless coverage across Europe recorded a dramatic 32 percent increase in 2013. One of the main goals of the "Digital Agenda for Europe" is a universal high-speed (at least 30 Mbps download) broadband coverage across the EU by 2020. "According to our research, challenges remain in passing this target, with rural Next Generation Access (NGA) coverage continuing to be especially problematic," said Alzbeta Fellenbaum, senior analyst at IHS . Only 18.1 percent of EU rural homes had access to NGA broadband at the end of 2013. While this represents a considerable improvement by nearly six percentage points compared to 2012, a lot remains to be done if universal NGA coverage is to be achieved...

Telecom and Cable TV broadband service providers have continued to invest in their infrastructure during 2013. Broadband customer premise equipment (CPE) shipments at the end of 2013 were expected to surpass 147 million units, according to the latest global market study by ABI Research. The CPE devices counted include broadband modems, wired routers, and home gateways. Despite a growing broadband subscriber base and increasing demand for advanced broadband services, broadband CPE shipments are only expected to grow to 150 million in 2014. "Increasing adoption of fiber-optic broadband services is driving the growth of fiber-optic CPE shipments," said Jake Saunders, VP and practice director at ABI Research . Fiber-optic CPE will represent 26 percent of overall broadband CPE shipped in 2014. Cable and DSL CPE devices will have equal market share of around 37 percent. As cable broadband operators rapidly extend to DOCSIS 3.0 networks, related DOCSIS CPE shipment is gainin...

Infonetics Research released excerpts from its latest market study of broadband service provider Residential Gateways. These are the broadband network access devices that are provided by the operator and installed in the service subscriber's home. Their insightful report delves into the service provider strategies for deploying and pricing residential gateways, the applications driving their deployments -- and their top picks for residential gateway vendors, services, technologies, and associated features. "With residential gateway revenue dropping because of price declines and a saturated broadband subscriber base, operators are looking to new services to increase revenue per subscriber," said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband access and video at Infonetics Research . Based upon recent interviews with network operators around the world, it is clear that they see their broadband access lines (be they DSL, cable, or FTTH) as a conduit for new revenue-gener...

The broadband Internet access market is gaining momentum in Britain, with the total number of superfast lines delivering speeds in excess of 25Mbps set to pass the 250,000 mark this April - according to the latest market study by Point Topic. Point Topic's Chief Analyst, Tim Johnson, says the number is still quite modest -- currently only 1 percent of homes in Britain -- it does mean that superfast broadband could be in a position to follow in the footsteps of first-generation broadband that was deployed 10 years ago. "We went on from there to reach over 13 million broadband lines within five years," he said. "Now we have over 19 million. It's dangerous just to assume that history will repeat itself -- but it's still a good pointer to what will happen to superfast broadband in this decade." Point Topic's estimates for the current penetration are based on its market data from the end of 2010. These show there were 175,000 superfast broadband lin...

Driven primarily by the needs of broadband service providers who seek ways to differentiate their Internet access offerings, the residential gateway market continues to gain in importance within the home networking infrastructure market. Telecom service providers have embraced the gateway concept, and gateway vendors have enjoyed success in shipping gateways. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , they forecast that residential gateway shipments will surpass 50 million units in 2011. "Many more telco service providers are supplying residential gateways instead of DSL broadband modems, not only for those customers requesting gateways, but also, at times, to create opportunities for future service add-ons and to better manage their customer networks," says Vahid Dejwakh, Industry Analyst at In-Stat. The residential gateway market continues its global dominance, due to telco provider's preference for multimedia gateways over basic modems -- because gateways ...

Subscribers of broadband services continue to grow across the globe, with mobile wireless growth, in particular, exceeding all expectations. The primary driver responsible for the growth of broadband subscribers continues to be the desire to access the Internet -- and the increasing availability of online multimedia content. The growing popularity of bandwidth-intensive applications, such as viewing streamed online video, using IP-based telephony services, and streaming or downloading music files, is directly spurring demand for higher-speed Internet connections -- with global subscribers totaling 763 million in 2010. "From 2007 through 2009, there was a continued growth rate of 25 percent in broadband subscribers worldwide," says Vahid Dejwakh, Industry Analyst at In-Stat . Though this momentum is expected to slowly decrease to 10 percent growth by 2014 as the broadband market matures, there are still some substantial gains to be made. According to the latest market...

Residential Gateways continued their growth within the broadband service provider customer premise equipment (CPE) market during the third quarter of 2010 -- rising 4.9 percent from the previous quarter and 43.2 percent from a year ago. Residential Gateway devices represented nearly 40 percent of all broadband CPE shipments in 3Q10, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . "The overall broadband CPE market grew for the 2nd consecutive quarter in 3Q10 and, as in last quarter, the growth is primarily a result of increases in Residential Gateway shipments," says Brad Shaffer, Industry Analyst at In-Stat. This growth trend is likely to continue for the next several cycles. In-Stat's latest market study found the following: - In 3Q10, 30.3 million broadband CPE units were shipped, a 1.7 percent increase from the previous quarter and a 5.1 percent increase from the same quarter last year. - Cable modem unit shipments were up 10.7 percent from the previous ...

Infonetics Research released excerpts from its first quarter (1Q10) Broadband CPE and Subscribers market study, which tracks DSL and cable broadband customer-premise equipment (CPE) and subscribers, voice CPE, residential gateways, and voice terminal adapters. The first quarter of the year is usually one of the worst for the broadband customer premise equipment market, as net subscriber additions and new CPE sales slow after the much better third and fourth quarters. This quarter was also hurt by lingering economic difficulties worldwide, which are keeping many consumers from upgrading their existing broadband CPE to support new services. "In particular, we saw a big drop in ADSL CPE in 1Q10, as operators are focused on deploying FTTH and VDSL2 services and are spending less to market their basic broadband services. All in all, 2010 will be a difficult year for CPE vendors, as operators see fewer new subscribers and will do what they can to use their existing inventory rath...

According to the latest market study by Point Topic , the total number of broadband lines in the UK is now expected to be 25.1 million by the end of 2014 -- almost a million more than before. The increase is not huge but it will help to improve the business case for broadband, and particularly for investment in superfast broadband using next generation access. The short-term forecasts have also been increased. The actual total for the end of 2009 was 80,000 higher than forecast at 18,370,000 lines. The forecast for the end of 2010 has been increased to 19,790,000, up from 19,580,000 previously. Looking back, projections such as these made by Point Topic are also proving highly accurate. The forecast for end-2009 made in October 2007 was within 1 percent of the actual result. The current forecast for end-2010 is just 1.2 percent higher than the forecast published in 2007. A major feature of the longer-term forecasts is the dramatic growth projected for superfast broadband, ma...

Consumer enthusiasm for broadband service continues unabated. In fact, some will subscribe to more than one type of broadband access, according to the latest market study by In-Stat. During 2009, an average of 8.8 million new broadband subscribers worldwide signed up for service each month. By 2013, In-Stat forecasts that the number of global broadband subscribers will surpass 1 billion. "The growing popularity of bandwidth-intensive applications, such as watching online video, using IP-based telephony services, and downloading music files, is spurring global demand for broadband Internet connections," says Mike Paxton, In-Stat analyst. Their reporting on the penetration of DSL relative to Mobile Internet subscribers was a surprise to me. I'm wondering if In-Stat has some of their data points transposed in their research report summary. Can it be true, that mobile wireless broadband has already surpassed cable broadband access, globally? In-Stat's market study found ...

The November 2009 edition of the IPTV Global Forecast was released by MRG . Their latest market study uses the most recent information from over 800 IPTV deployments around the world, and includes a forecast for IPTV subscribers, service revenue, and system revenue from 2009 to 2013. Additionally, this worldwide market assessment forecasts over 28 discrete market sectors in 4 geographic regions. Because the 2009 subscriber total exceeded the last forecast by 2 million, the new forecast indicates that global IPTV subscribers will grow from 28 million in 2009 to 83 million in 2013 -- a compound annual growth rate of 31 percent. Who is setting the pace for market development? There's no change. According to MRG's assessment, the European region will continue to lead in IPTV deployments in 2013 with 48 percent share, followed by Asia-Pacific, North America and Rest of World. "Now that the economy seems to be improving, and Service Providers are still reporting solid growth, th...

To date, the slowest total global broadband service provider Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) market growth this decade had been 2.4 percent (154M units) in 2008, according to the latest market study by In-Stat. 2009 will be even slower. However, cable gateways, Wi-Fi and VoIP routers, and wireless and VoIP DSL CPE units continue to grow in at least double digits. In addition, several segments of the broadband CPE market, including cable gateways, Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) gateways, and Fixed Wireless Broadband (FWB) CPE are expected to grow considerably faster than the overall market over five years. "Gigabit Ethernet, VoIP, the DSL Forum's TR-69, and 802.11n are all drivers for CPE upgrades and replacements," says Joyce Putscher, In-Stat analyst. "We're also seeing accelerated growth in FTTH CPE unit shipments in 2009." In-Stat's market study found the following: - The overall broadband CPE market includes broadband modems, routers, and residential gat...

Worldwide broadband subscriptions will reach 466 million in 2009, representing 1.1 billion discrete broadband users, according to the latest market study by Strategy Analytics. The total number of broadband subscriptions will surpass 800 million by 2013, implying a 14.6 percent CAGR. DSL continues to be the dominant access technology, accounting for nearly two-thirds of worldwide subscriptions. Fiber and WiMAX, however, continue to grow share and together will account for over 25 percent of all broadband subscriptions by 2013. The Asia Pacific region claims 41 percent of all broadband subscriptions, followed by Western Europe and then North America. North America and Western Europe likewise lead in terms of household broadband penetration. Global penetration stood at 23 percent in 2008, and will reach 44 percent by 2013. The Central and Eastern European Region (CEE) is the fastest growing market, and is expected to grow 28 percent in 2009. Global Broadband ARPUs will decline approximat...

Dell'Oro Group announced that it forecasts the combined worldwide sales for access network infrastructure equipment including Cable, DSL and PON access concentrators will decrease almost 15 percent in 2009 to $4.0 billion. Their latest market study indicates that this decrease is primarily due to declining subscriber additions and a weak global economy that will slow operator access network upgrade plans. The report forecasts access concentrator shipment growth for Cable, PON, and VDSL in 2010 and to continue each year through 2013, the duration of the forecast period. Meanwhile, the trend towards higher-speed networks is expected to result in sharp yearly declines in revenue for slower-speed ADSL infrastructure equipment. "The weakening global economic situation has caused us to lower our forecast for most segments relative to our July 2008 forecast," said Tam Dell'Oro, Founder of Dell'Oro Group. "This is especially true for 2009, but there are also implica...

At the end of 2008, fiber optic communications (FTTx) had firmly established itself as a third viable and scalable global fixed broadband technology alongside DSL and Cable. Despite economic problems, operators will continue to build new networks, and the number of global FTTx subscriptions will almost triple between now and the end of 2013. But operators face some key challenges. While FTTx will experience some growth between now and 2013, many consumers are still unwilling to pay an excess for new FTTx services. In addition, most operators do not know if, how and when they will make a return on their investments. According to Informa Telecoms & Media, there were 49 million global Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), Fiber-to-the-building (FTTB) and Very high speed DSL (VDSL) subscriptions in 2008. This represents 11.6 percent of all fixed line subscriptions. While such figures may seem impressive, subscriptions are clustered in only a few countries and fiber is still not a reality for consu...

Regardless of the current economic environment, broadband services are still in high demand -- attracting millions of new subscribers worldwide each month, according to the latest market study by In-Stat. Over the past 12 months, approximately 80 million new broadband subscribers signed up for high-speed access to the Internet, the high-tech market research firm says. In terms of broadband access technologies, digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies continue to serve the greatest number of broadband subscribers worldwide, accounting for 55 percent of total broadband connections. "The increasing popularity of online applications such as downloading music files, watching TV programming, and playing online video games, are driving demand for services that provide ever-increasing amounts of bandwidth," says Mike Paxton, In-Stat analyst. Being able to use these applications, combined with the basic consumer desire to surf the net, is fueling global demand for broadband services...