Market research firm Infonetics Research released its 2nd quarter 2013 CMTS and Edge QAM Hardware and Subscribers report, which tracks cable broadband equipment and subscribers.

“Once again, the cable broadband aggregation market is a tale of opposing trends: increasing channel capacity to support DOCSIS 3.0, multiscreen, and OTT video, and decreasing price-per-channel,” notes Jeff Heynen, principal analyst for broadband access and pay TV at Infonetics Research. “With CCAP (converged cable access platforms) now seeing deployments, though as nothing more than dense CMTS and edge QAM platforms, pricing is expected to erode further while channel volumes continue to soar.”

“2013 will be the nadir of recent and future years,” Heynen adds: “But good times lay ahead as channel volumes across the board should more than offset the continued ASP erosion.”

Highlights of the report include:
– The global CMTS and edge QAM market declined 4 per cent in Q3 2013, to $313 million, as lower-cost CMTS downstream and edge QAM channel shipments dominated the product mix
– In the critical region of North America, CMTS and edge QAM revenue was down 27 per cent in Q3 2013 from Q2 2012, owing to the turn-up of a large number of software licences
– Though the 1st significant deployments of CCAP-capable products began in Q2 2013, major CCAP shipments won’t begin until 2014, when vendors make available integrated broadcast and narrowcast video QAMs and DOCSIS downstreams on the same RF ports
– Cisco and Arris have established themselves as the frontrunners in the CMTS market, but competition is intensifying as vendors vie for share ahead of potential CCAP deployments
– Case in point: Casa Systems continues to grow steadily thanks to its head start on density and price-per-channel

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