Arris takes lead in cable broadband, Cisco down

BANGALORE, INDIA: Worldwide cable modem termination system (CMTS) and edge quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) hardware revenue dropped 13 percent in 2Q09 from 1Q09.

For the first time ever, Arris captured a commanding lead in worldwide CMTS revenue this quarter, taking 47 percent of the market. Perennial market leader Cisco lost significant CMTS revenue share in 2Q09.

This is according to analyst firm Infonetics Research's CMTS and edge QAM report.

Jeff Heynen, directing analyst, broadband and video, Infonetics Research, said: "After the heavy investments that were made in CMTS and edge QAM equipment in 2008, when revenue was up a whopping 43 percent from 2007, there was almost no way 2009 would be an up year for the cable broadband market with or without a recession."

"As it is, broadband subscriber growth is slowing, and many of the CMTS ports that have shipped to major operators are in inventory, waiting to be deployed to the field. Although we see total ports and revenue increasing in the back half of the year, that growth won't be enough to salvage 2009."

Report Highlights

Due to the heavy focus on rolling out the first phase of DOCSIS 3.0 services, downstream port shipments increased nearly nine percent worldwide from 1Q09.

Infonetics analysts believes that Cisco will return next quarter to close the market share gap and resume its lead by the end of the year.

Despite the economic uncertainty, cable operators have three strategic goals, which will continue to drive their CMTS and edge QAM investments during the downturn:

Expanding DOCSIS 3.0 footprint.

Transitioning from T-CMTS and I-CMTS to M-CMTS architectures.

Introducing hybrid IP/QAM video services to support tru2way and DVB-MHP services.

Infonetics' CMTS and edge QAM report tracks standard and wideband cable broadband subscribers; CMTS revenue and ports (upstream and downstream); and edge QAM channels and revenue. The report provides worldwide and regional CMTS vendor market share for Arris, Casa, Cisco, Motorola, and others. UEQ vendors tracked include Arris, BigBand, Casa, Cisco, GoBackTV, Harmonic, LiquidXStream, Motorola, RGB Networks, Tandberg TV, Teleste, and Vecima.