Broadband Modem Sales To Hit $4.6 Billion by 2008: Report

Worldwide revenues from sales of broadband customer premise equipment (CPE) fell 5% to $1.2 billion last quarter, while unit shipments rose 8% to 28.8 million, according to a new report from Infonetics Research.

Despite the short-term drop, Infonetics predicts that worldwide annual revenues from broadband CPE sales to reach $4.6 billion by 2008. Indeed, revenues from voice-enabled broadband CPE sales reached $188.4 million last quarter, up 2% from the second quarter of this year. Infonetics expects this growth to continue, with voice-enabled broadband CPE revenues soaring 123% between 2004 and 2008.

"The convergence of voice, data, and video services is driving CPE growth, particularly voice-enabled CPE, residential gateways and, in the long term, IP set top boxes," Infonetics directing analyst for broadband and IPTV Jeff Heynen said in a statement. "Service convergence is also driving the consolidation of disparate capabilities into highly intelligent, multifunctional CPE designed to simplify the subscriber experience."

The firm expects Asia Pacific to lead the world in overall revenues by 2008. Indeed, there was an overall revenue drop in both North America and Europe, the Middle East and Africa, which accounted for 37% and 29% of quarterly revenues, respectively, while the Asia Pacific market made up 28% of revenues.