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CommScope intends to go forward with one integrated virtual cable modem termination system (vCMTS) following the acquisition of Casa Systems' cable assets, says CommScope's Guy Sucharczuk.
CommScope intends to integrate its virtual cable modem termination system (vCMTS) with a similar product already developed by Casa Systems, which recently sold its cable assets to CommScope following a court-supervised auction.
"We're going to combine [those products] and have a vCMTS product in the end," said Guy Sucharczuk, SVP and president of CommScope's Access Network Solutions (ANS) unit. "We can't have two [vCMTS] products in the market for a long period of time. It can cause confusion."
CommScope, he added, will also ensure that its hardware for hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) networks, such as remote PHY devices and nodes, are compatible with the final product.
"I think that's something that really resonates with the customer because they don't have to worry about their hardware investment," Sucharczuk explained.
Amid the early assessments, Sucharczuk isn't saying yet when CommScope expects to complete the integration and offer one, integrated vCMTS. But that integration, he said, represents a top priority following CommScope's $45.1 million bid for Casa's cable assets, a bid that beat out a bid of $44.95 from Vecima Systems, which originally put up a $20 million "stalking horse" bid for those assets. Harmonic, currently the vCMTS market leader, also participated in the court-supervised auction.
Following court approval, CommScope closed its acquisition of Casa's cable assets on Friday, June 7.
Heading into that auction, CommScope had already reprioritized vCMTS development and secured trials with a number of customers it is trying to convert into deployments. Casa Systems had also developed a vCMTS and announced commitments from Rogers Communications and Claro Colombia.
Sticking with Red Hat
CommScope's resulting integrated vCMTS will run on Red Hat, the same platform it was using for its initial vCMTS product. Casa was using Ubuntu, another Linux-based operating system. "We were already on Red Hat, which was a big, big deal for some of the customers," Sucharczuk said. "The good news is we had just gone through that [Red Hat] integration ourselves, so we understood what it takes."
He said Casa was further along with its vCMTS than CommScope originally believed.
Sucharczuk believes the Casa deal slots CommScope in as the number-two player in the vCMTS market, behind Harmonic, and will give the company additional opportunities to gain share as more cable operators start to make their vCMTS picks or opt to buy vCMTS products from dual sources. Vecima Networks has also entered the vCMTS fray.
"I think it's wide open," Sucharczuk said of the vCMTS market.
But the "real push" for vCMTS deployments will be a shift to DOCSIS 4.0 upgrades, he said. "You don't get any significant speed bump out of doing a vCMTS unless you do DOCSIS 4.0."
Time will tell when DOCSIS 4.0 deployments ramp up. A cloud of uncertainty has hung over the market partly because there are two options for D4.0: Full Duplex DOCSIS and Extended Spectrum DOCSIS. A new unified chip from Broadcom does both. But access to that new silicon is limited to a handful of large operators that have signed a joint development agreement (JDA) with the chipmaker, a situation that remains a concern for operators that are not participating in the JDA.
Sucharczuk said he's hopeful the situation will get resolved soon and have the industry rowing in the same direction on DOCSIS 4.0.
Another wrinkle is an ongoing exploration of DOCSIS 3.1 upgrades, particularly among small and midsized operators. That option, sometimes referred to as DOCSIS 3.1 extended or DOCSIS 3.1+, doesn't require a distributed access architecture (DAA) upgrade and could, therefore, push out the need for some operators to pursue a full D4.0 upgrade.
Additionally, some operators will upgrade to fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) and PON in some existing HFC networks and are going exclusively with fiber in greenfield areas. That may not have a major impact on the vCMTS as the market already has seen Harmonic adapt its vCMTS platform (now branded as "cOS") to support FTTP.
But there's still cause for concern. As Jeff Heynen, VP and analyst with the Dell'Oro Group, points out in this blog post about CommScope's play for Casa's cable assets, the DOCSIS and HFC market is in decline amid the transition to fiber. "Therefore, we don't expect the combined vCMTS and Remote PHY Device (RPD) market to ever reach to revenue levels seen in 2018 and prior for integrated CCAP platforms," he wrote.
'Significant' customer overlap
Sucharczuk said CommScope was also pleased to learn it had more "significant overlap" with Casa's customer base than originally thought once CommScope got its hands on Casa's full customer list.
Some sizable operators that have deployed Casa's legacy CMTS products include Charter Communications, Vodafone, Videotron, Rogers, Liberty Global and Japan's J:COM.
CommScope did not assume Casa's existing sales contracts, but it intends to move them onto CommScope's contracts, he said.
CommScope is not yet saying how many Casa employees are coming on board, but Sucharczuk said more than 90% of the people made offers to have agreed to join CommScope.
Sucharczuk said customer reaction to the agreement has been positive, as writing a big check for Casa's cable assets gives Casa's operator customers some "general relief" while "reinforcing that we're in the [cable] business and we're here to stay."
Notably, CommScope has been evaluating possible sales of assets, including Ruckus as well as ANS, to help it reduce its heavy debt load. But the company has stressed it won't sell anything on the cheap.
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