Charlottesville, VA: According to a newly released report from CIR, a leading industry analyst firm based here, US-based MSO spending on transmission, routing and switching equipment should see sequential growth with a total aggregate spending of approximately $3.2 billion (US) over the 5-year period beginning in 2003.

Highlights from CIR?s report include:


Cisco has become the most successful vendor to cross over to the cable industry from the telco and enterprise markets and has become the dominant supplier of CMTSs, as well as switching and routing equipment. The company has shaken off every serious competitor in the headend cable-data market and with the exception of ADC, has left everyone else scrambling for inconsequential contracts and international opportunities. Meanwhile within the MSO-equipment industry, Riverstone is to Ethernet what Sorrento is to DWDM: a marketing success, with little revenue to show for it.


The MSOs have won broadband. While some observers still expect DSL, 802.11, or even satellite broadband to gain share, CIR expects cable to continue its residential broadband domination, with around 65 to 70 percent of the market. With about 12 million subscribers now, the MSOs should triple that amount by the time the market matures, and growth slows dramatically, in about three years. Already the fastest growing MSO service, residential broadband internet should grow from about 15 percent of cable revenue today to about 30 percent in 2007 and continue to be the application that determines MSO networking decisions instead of VoD.

MSOs have surpassed the long-distance companies as the biggest threat to the RBOCs selling Ethernet. CIR notes that while IXCs and CLECs typically fall on top of each other trying to grab the biggest customers in the largest markets, the MSOs stick to only the cities where they have existing franchises and can leverage existing infrastructure and furthermore, are not afraid to slash pricing when chasing accounts. These companies have also managed to capture a large share of educational, government and other not-for-profit markets.


CIR?s report titled, Transmission, Routing and Switching in the Cable Network analyzes the top cable operating companies and examines how their financial footing and business strategies are impacting networking decisions. Inside the report CIR illustrates how vendors are succeeding?as well failing?in their efforts to generate revenues. The report provides detailed forecasts of domestic spending on transmission, routing and switching hardware (SONET, WDM, ATM, Ethernet, IP, and CMTSs) broken out by geographies, ASPs, total shipments and port types.


For additional information about the report please visit CIR?s web site at http://www.cir-inc.com/. Members of the press may request an executive summary or an interview with the analyst for the report by contacting Meg Morris via email at meg@cir-inc.com.

View the report: http://www.cir-inc.com/products/prod_detail.cfm?prod=2&id=166

Source: CIR