Comments on: Bad Times Ahead for Broadband?

By: Davi

Davi — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 01:54:28 +0000

Good poinT, I’m a broadband user as well and I think that U.S. subisidies is definitely not a good idea right now.

By: 10 Stories That Defined Broadband in 2008

10 Stories That Defined Broadband in 2008 — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:23:10 +0000

[...] to cut the cord and switch entirely to mobile plans in order to save money. The demand for DSL services slowed to a crawl. Their expansion into video is going slower than previously predicted. In order to deal with slow [...]

By: A Bleak Future for Telecom

A Bleak Future for Telecom — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 05:39:13 +0000

[...] already (With AT&T Job Cuts, Telco Recession is Official;Trouble Returns to the Land of Telecom; Bad Times Ahead for Broadband). Essentially the credit crunch is preventing phone companies from borrowing money with which to [...]

By: Downturn Will Hurt Cable Too - GigaOM

Downturn Will Hurt Cable Too - GigaOM — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 20:12:19 +0000

[...] a note to clients, he points to an estimated 20-30 percent drop in the cable firms’ ability to add new subscribers, saying customers downgrading their service plans in response to the economy and increasing [...]

By: Van Theodorou

Van Theodorou — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:52:59 +0000

I agree with Ranjit, we are too addicted to our broadband, plus, I don't know of anyone in my area who doesn't have broadband, therefore, you can see saturation in most metro areas. Van Worldnet Solutions

By: Luis

Luis — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 22:35:34 +0000

No worries….U.S. Subsidies for broadband are one the way….

DECEMBER 2, 2008, 4:38 P.M. ET Stimulus Plan to Include Internet-Access Funds
By COREY BOLES and FAWN JOHNSON – Wall Street Journal

By: Ranjit Nayak

Ranjit Nayak — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:37:38 +0000

As reader Nimrod pointed out CMTS is not cable modem. Are slower sales of CMTS bad omen for broadband? I would think not, since the need for bandwidth seems to be increasing. Remote home offices are made possible by broadband. The plethora of content ( read TV shows ) available on demand gives consumers a great deal of freedom. I am not an early adopter and still find broadband as necessary as electricity, and I would think that many people are like me. I therefore dont think these research reports spell doom and gloom for broadband.

Ranjit Nayak

By: Roy

Roy — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:55:00 +0000

Mari, the Motorola shipment numbers that were up were mainly in Europe and Latin America, they shipped zero Docsis 2.0 cable modems to many of the top NA MSOs. The cable modem shipments are for Docsis 3.0 modems but that’s only temporary until the new Docsis 3.0 eMTAs are finished and approved for deployment.

MSO strategy is buy only eMTAs since their costs are going down fast and it’s more cost effective and operationally effective to have one device (emta) instead of two (cable modem and voip adapter).

As for Docsis 3.0 deployments, the LightReading article is a citing deployment plan announcements not actual deployments. Don’t get me wrong Comcast will be very aggressive with Docsis3.0 deployments but the economy will dictate their pace.

Roy

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:02:25 +0000

@Nimrod

Thanks for pointing out the error. Late night posting is never a good idea. Anyway I did fix it and my apologies for the mistake.

By: Mari Silbey

Mari Silbey — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:22:13 +0000

And yet Motorola shipments were up in Q3. And Comcast has ramped up its DOCSIS 3.0 deployments recently. http://twurl.nl/hm0a41

By: Roy

Roy — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:00:00 +0000

It’s also important to note that cable operators are selling less pure cable modems and more eMTAs which are cable modems with VOIP. I’m not sure what the mentioned research is actually counting.

As for DOCSIS 3.0, I’m sure it’s a very important product for cable operators to deploy in order to compete with FiOS however from what I’m hearing the current price points seem significantly high especially when consumers are already paying a lot for video and voice. I’m sure there will be bundles and that they will try to beat the FiOS price point but it’s not going to be a cheap service which will slow the adoption.

The other issue with DOCSIS 3.0 is that providing 50+Mbps service will require adding more CMTSs (cable modem termination systems) which is very costly, not to mention the plant (HFC) preparation required to support increased capacity. Because of this you will see DOCSIS 3.0 rolled out slowly and only in very competitive FiOS markets such as Boston and NYC.

Roy

By: Nimrod

Nimrod — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:30:43 +0000

I believe the following is related to CMTS (Cable modem termination systems) and not Cable modems.
“The sales of cable modems declined 32 percent in the third quarter of 2008 to $246 million, according to research firm Infonetics Research. In comparison, $360 million worth of cable modems were sold in the second quarter of 2008.”