BETHESDA, Md. -- According to DITTBERNER's BROADBAND Quarterly Shipments Analysis, Worldwide DSLAM port shipments slightly declined to 11.3 million units during third quarter of 2004 from 11.4 million last quarter.

According to the research, DSL penetration in the U.S. remains low, which would seem to indicate that there is room for growth. However carriers reached a point where they have a large amount of capacity and a low utilization rate. The oversupply of aging DSL equipment has already started to have an impact on DSLAM equipment suppliers who must compete with cut-rate prices and now have trouble generating new sales in a market with excess capacity. The DSLAM port shipments declined in North America as a result of the additional capacity that was recently added and a slower rate of DSL subscriber growth. In addition, carriers are at a cross point deciding whether to continue investing in DSL (upgrading to ADSL2+) or begin investing into Fiber to the Home (FTTH).

Alcatel lead the worldwide DSLAM market in Q3 2004 with close to 40 percent of port shipments, followed by Huawei with 18.8 percent market share. 46.2% of DSLAM ports were shipped in Asia Pacific, 29% in EMEA, 18.4% in North America, and 6.3% in CALA.

Dittberner Associates Inc.