Broadband CPE Market Nears $5 Billion

Just in case you had any doubts, the worldwide market for home broadband equipment is soaring these days. In the latest data, Infonetics Research estimates that the global market for consumer broadband gear totalled $4.9 billion last year, up 123% from the 2004 results. Infonetics found that E-MTA and ADSL IAD sales particularly rose in the fourth quarter, after registering record totals in the third quarter, as broadband providers everywhere accelerated their rollouts of VoIP services. For example, worldwide E-MTA revenue jumped to nearly $144 million in Q4, up 31% from Q3. In an ominous sign for cable operators, DSL adoption continued to take off across the globe last year. Infonetics found that the number of DSL subscribers throughout the world surged to 125.5 million, up 27% for the year. The research firm forecasts that this total will nearly double to 245.4 million subscribers by 2009. Cisco-Linksys took over the lead for overall broadband CPE revenue in 2005, followed by D-Link, Thomson, Motorola and Siemens, according to Infonetics. It projects that the equipment manufacturers will generate $6.5 billion in worldwide revenue in three years.