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Communications market research firm Infonetics Research has now released the fourth quarter (4Q08) edition of its Broadband CPE and Subscribers report.

The report shows that the worldwide broadband CPE market sequentially dipped four percent to $1.0 billion in 4Q08. Traditionally this quarter was always a growth period for the market but the cautious attitude among telcos and MSOs has caused a fall in revenue.

The slowdown in broadband subscriber growth in the fourth quarter of 2008 has caused manufacturer revenue to decline 5percent for DSL CPE, and two percent for cable CPE globally.

Infonetics' report shows that worldwide, VoIP subscriber additions and voice-enabled CPE revenues were down as well since subscribers are increasingly unwilling to upgrade their current services. However there is a possibility of growth in the second half of 2009 as cable operators with digital voice services and telcos transitioning away from their PSTN access lines to VoIP over broadband are likely to attract customers by aggressively pricing these services.

Another key trend is the growth of digital home gateway sales as more and more telcos use them to bundle IPTV (News - Alert) into broadband services to increase ARPU. According to the report, worldwide, digital home gateway sales grew 12 percent in 4Q08, with most of the revenue hailing from North America and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa), where operators like Verizon, AT&T (News - Alert), Orange, and Free provide fully     integrated gateways.

These integrated gateways can prioritize voice, data, and video packets and provide in-home networking features and services such as whole home DVR. The report points out that Verizon (News - Alert) has already deployed these gateways successfully.

Calling 2009 a challenging year for broadband CPE vendors, Jeff Heynen, Directing Analyst, Broadband and Video, Infonetics Research, predicted that the long-term forecast was good. Heynen added, “Broadband connections to deliver converged services - voice, video, and high speed Internet now, and home monitoring and automation services later - will grow at a healthy clip from 2010 to 2013."

Among the companies studied in the report, 2Wire, Cisco, and Motorola (News - Alert) posted the biggest DSL CPE revenue gains in 2008 over 2007 while Cisco, NETGEAR, and Thomson posted the biggest cable CPE revenue gains for the year.

Other companies studied in the report include Actiontec, ARRIS, AVM), D-Link, Gemtek, Huawei, Nokia Siemens (News - Alert), Sagem, SMC, Sphairon Sumitomo, Telsey, Ubee (Ambit Broadband), US Robotics, Westell, Xavi Technologies, Zhone, ZTE and ZyXEL.

 

According to official sources, Infonetics' quarterly broadband CPE report provides data on global and regional market share, market size, analysis, and forecasts through 2013 for DSL CPE (ADSL, VDSL, and G.SHDSL modems and gateways; ADSL IADs); standard and wideband cable CPE (modems, gateways, and EMTAs); residential gateways (broadband, multiservice, and digital home gateways); voice terminal adapters (VTAs); voice CPE; and standard and wideband cable subscribers and DSL subscribers.