The broadband Customer Premise Equipment market is transitioning from a modem-dominated one to a gateway-dominated one, with cable firms and telcos finally turning talk into action with orders for gateway-based CPE.
Providers are evolving CPE strategies to include fuller gateways that enable, at the very least, a back-end managed home network, according to high-tech market research firm In-Stat/MDR.
The residential gateway market will drive growth in the broadband CPE market for the next five years. The market will go from just under 5 million gateways shipped in 2004 to over 18 million by 2008, at an annual growth rate of 30%, according to the report.
The report also found that:
* Overall market growth will slow because of saturation of certain broadband markets in North America, Europe and Asia, and the maturation of emerging markets such as China and India.
* The move from two-box solutions such as modem/router combinations for home network deployments to residential gateway deployments will also put the brakes on the growth of overall shipments.
* Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP), will become a common feature on broadband CPE in the coming years. In 2008 more than 8 million units shipped will have VoIP capabilities incorporated.
And VoIP won't be the only advanced service. Increasingly, In-Stat/MDR believes video services will be enabled through advanced gateway devices.
"As broadband access technologies improve and compression and video networking capabilities advance, more consumers will be getting high quality video content through a gateway and redistributing it through the home," says Wolf.
The report, "Broadband CPE 2004: Gateways Giddy-Up While Modems Ride Into the Sunset," contains analysis and forecasts of the worldwide CPE market from 2004-2008.
In-Stat/MDR is based in Scottsdale, AZ. For more information visit
www.instat.com.
