MONTEREY, CA – Global cable operators spent 2015 taking advantage of low downstream channel prices and boosted shipments of converged cable access platforms (CCAP) to record levels, according to new data from SNL Kagan.
Total Data over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) downstream channels jumped 41% for the full year to top 6 million, the company estimated. Cable operators continue to focus on ramping up downstream bandwidth to stay ahead of growing fibre to the home (FTTH) deployments by telecommunications operators and other Internet service providers (ISPs), including Google Fiber and municipal fiber networks.
Despite the significant increase in channels, revenue dropped 3% to $1.74 billion from 2014 to 2015 as competitive pricing coupled with a rise in software licenses helped push down the average price per downstream channel.
ARRIS, which provides hardware and software to cable operators, closed out the year as the global revenue leader, holding 53% of total revenue among providers of cable broadband infrastructure.
“The imminent availability of DOCSIS 3.1 linecards and full-spectrum channels won't slow the continued purchase and deployment of current DOCSIS 3.0 channels as cable operators must continue to increase throughput to reduce the likelihood of churn among their broadband subscribers,” said SNL Kagan senior research analyst Jeff Heynen.
