Web video fuels home broadband bonanza

The number of global broadband subscribers continues to surge, fuelling the broadband customer premises equipment (CPE) market, which grew 15 per cent to $5.6bn in 2006, new research reports.

Infonetics Research's latest Broadband CPE and Subscribers report said that the overall rise in broadband CPE manufacturer revenue was driven in large part by surging residential gateway sales, which jumped 39 per cent between the first and fourth quarters of 2006.

However, intense competition is expected to drive down the price per unit significantly for many broadband CPE categories, particularly ADSL integrated access devices and broadband gateways.

Infonetics believes that this will keep annual revenue growth in the overall market to the low single digits through to 2010.

"Carriers are shifting their focus to video, so phase two of the triple-play battle will spur big increases in gateway sales, especially VDSL broadband gateways, revenue for which is expected to quadruple in 2007, and digital home gateways, revenue for which will grow six-fold between now and 2010," said Infonetics Research analyst Jeff Heynen.

He added that worldwide broadband CPE sales totalled $1.5bn in the fourth quarter of 2006, up two per cent on the previous quarter.

Worldwide residential gateway revenue reached $2.9bn in 2006, driven by strong multi-service gateway sales.

Despite plunging revenue per unit for most broadband CPE products, aggressive service provider rollouts of DSL, cable and fibre networks will keep growth in the overall market at a steady incline through 2010.

Linksys was identified as the worldwide broadband CPE revenue leader in 2006, followed by Thomson and Motorola in second and third places.