Insight and analytics source IHS has raised its outlook for the broadband customer premises equipment (CPE) market, which includes DSL, cable, fibre-to-the-home (FTTH), residential gateways and mobile broadband CPE. In a September report, the firm noted it increased its 2019 worldwide broadband CPE forecast by 8 per cent, to $12.4 billion.

“The primary source for raising our global broadband CPE forecast is the massive investment currently ongoing in China. Despite reported economic headwinds, the Chinese government continues to subsidise telco investments in fibre infrastructure to expand accessibility and throughput. The result is heavy spending on GPON and EPON ONTs,” said Jeff Heynen, research director for broadband access and pay TV at IHS.

“At the same time, the shift from fibre-to-the-building (FTTB) to FTTH architecture is well underway in China. A primary reason for this architectural shift is that FTTB plus ADSL take-rates at China Telecom have been disappointing; consumers aren’t interested in a connection that offers only a marginal improvement over what they already have. If they are to subscribe to a home broadband service, it needs to provide a minimum of 8MB to 10MB speeds,” Heynen said.

Broadband CPE market highlights:

• The big story this quarter is FTTH optical network terminals (ONTs) in China, unit shipments of which more than doubled year-over-year, from 9.8 million to over 20 million from Q214 to Q215

• In Q215, the global broadband CPE market grew 5 per cent from the previous quarter, to $2.9 billion; unit shipments grew 11 per cent, to 61 million

• Worldwide total broadband CPE revenue is up 7 per cent from the year-ago second quarter, when it was just under $2.7 billion

• Quarter-over-quarter, from Q115 to Q215:

  • DSL CPE unit shipments were down 1 per cent to 23 million, with VDSL IADs posting the highest growth (+11 per cent)

  • Cable CPE units were up 1 per cent to 11.6 million (90 per cent of which were WiFi-enabled), with DOCSIS 3.0 modems posting the highest growth (+13 per cent)

  • Fixed LTE CPE shipments grew 4 per cent

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