Global sales of cable broadband aggregation equipment – which includes cable modem termination systems (CMTSs) and Universal edgeQAMs (U-eQAMs) – reached $199 million in Q4 2007, an increase of 13 percent sequentially.

The increase marked the only quarterly revenue increase in 2007, according to Infonetics Research’s newest “Cable Broadband Aggregation Hardware and Subscribers” report. And the number of worldwide cable broadband subscribers exceeded 68 million in 2007.

Infonetics said it expects the overall cable broadband aggregation hardware market to grow from $860 million in 2007 to nearly $1.4 billion in 2011 – as CMTS downstream and upstream port shipments continue to increase for DOCSIS 3.0 deployments and as U-eQAMs are increasingly deployed for both DOCSIS 3.0 and switched digital video (SDV) rollouts.

“Increasing competition among equipment providers to serve MSOs as they upgrade their cable networks is placing downward pressure on overall CMTS revenue growth, as will the introduction of lower-cost M-CMTS architectures, but we still expect to see sustained annual revenue growth over the next five years,” said Mark Showalter, directing analyst for broadband networks at Infonetics.

“On the vendor front, Cisco has the early lead in wideband module shipments for CMTS platforms, and universal edgeQAMs saw quarterly growth, and will continue to see significant growth, throughout 2008,” Showalter added.

Cisco has the highest CMTS revenue in every region except CALA (Central America/Latin America), where Arris dominates. Motorola is gaining back its CMTS market share in North America, where Arris and Cisco have been battling it out.

More Broadband Direct:

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• Sprint reports continued loss of subs, revenue in Q4 

• Cable broadband aggregation equipment sales increase in Q4 

• Verizon announces $200M network expansion in Mass. 

• Liberty Media completes deal for control of DirecTV 

• Nortel cutting 2,100 jobs 

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