Manufacturer revenue on CMTS (cable modem termination systems) and edge QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) grew 6% to $1.7 billion last year. Infonetics Research said in a new report that global CMTS port shipments hit record levels in the fourth quarter of 2011 and are up by 48% for the full year.
Based on the CMTS and Edge QAM Hardware and Subscribers report, combined CMTS and edge QAM revenue grew 5% in the final quarter of 2011, growing by 17% faster than in the year-ago quarter.
"The cable broadband market ended 2011 on a high note both for the quarter and the year, and both for revenue and port shipments,” said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband access and video.
“Even though Verizon and AT&T have slowed their fixed broadband network rollouts, North American multiple system operators are continuing theirs, resulting in 94% total CMTS port growth in the region in 2011,” Heynen added. “In fact, every region saw port growth in 2011, as cable operators worldwide continue their DOCSIS 3.0 (data over cable service interface specification) transformations."
The report also found that CMTS revenue is not keeping pace with port shipments because revenue per downstream continues to drop (down 31% in 2011), as more high-density downstream-only cards are introduced and as the market continues to shift towards license-based upgrades in regions outside North America
Further, Cisco is the only of the four CMTS equipment leaders that gained CMTS revenue market share in 2011, growing from 51% to 59% of the global market -- just one point shy of its all-time high.