U.S. and Canada D3 Deployments are Expected to Reach 90 Million Homes by 2012

NEW YORK, June 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Multiple system operators (MSOs) are investing considerable amounts in bandwidth, capital, and operation expenditures in Docsis 3.0 (D3) technology, and many operators are exploring new system architectures, fiber deployments, or optical network technologies. Despite the expenses and technology overhauls, North American MSOs are deploying D3 in significant volume, which is expected to grow to 90 million homes by 2012, according to the latest report from Heavy Reading Cable Industry Insider (www.heavyreading.com/cable), a subscription research service from TechWeb's Light Reading (www.lightreading.com).

Broadband Speed War: Cable Arms Itself with Docsis 3.0 examines D3 progress and strategies, as well as the market drivers and challenges affecting the technology. The prospects for D3 will have a bearing on suppliers of cable modems, cable modem termination systems (CMTSs), and other broadband networking technologies and gear. Finally, the report profiles five leading MSOs, and highlights 11 other vendors in the market.

For a list of companies covered in this report, http://img.lightreading.com/cii/pdf/cii0610_companies.pdf

"Cable service providers are rapidly deploying ultra-fast wideband Internet service based on Docsis 3.0 technology, increasingly known as D3," notes Craig Leddy, research analyst with Heavy Reading Cable Industry Insider and author of the report. "Heavy Reading projects that D3 will pass 75 million cable homes in North America in 2010 and 90 million homes by 2012, arming cable systems with the ability to offer downstream Internet speeds up to 160 Mbit/s."

The initial prognosis for D3 technology is good and deployments are proceeding in a logical fashion, Leddy says. "A long list of factors will determine how quickly operators push D3 connections and ramp up their speeds, and only a few of those factors have to do with the technology," he continues. "Although cable is wrestling with technical challenges, such as upstream speeds, and it is debating various networking strategies for IP video and future services, the foundation of D3 technology has been proven in the field."

Key findings of Broadband Speed War: Cable Arms Itself with Docsis 3.0 include the following:

• MSOs are rapidly deploying D3 broadband, passing an estimated 75 million homes in North America this year.
• Most MSOs are deploying at 50 to 60 Mbit/s to compete with Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-verse.
• Initial consumer uptake of D3 is slow, but consumers are migrating to high-speed tiers. D3 requires more applications and marketing to drive demand.
• D3 supports the FCC's goal of 100-Mbit/s availability, but FCC intervention threatens to diminish D3's economics for MSOs.
• The MSOs' pace of deployment affects the cable supplier market where pricing competition is fierce.

Broadband Speed War: Cable Arms Itself with Docsis 3.0 is available as part of an annual subscription (six issues) to Heavy Reading Cable Industry Insider, priced at $1,595. Individual reports are available for $900.

To subscribe, or for more information about Heavy Reading Cable Industry Insider, please visit: www.heavyreading.com/cable. For more information about other Heavy Reading Insider research services, please visit: www.lightreading.com/research.

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Founded in 2000, Light Reading (www.lightreading.com) is the leading online media, research, and focused event company serving the $3 trillion worldwide communications market. Lightreading.com is the ultimate source for technological and financial analysis of the communications industry, leading the media sector in terms of traffic, content, and reputation. Light Reading's research arms, Heavy Reading and Pyramid Research, provide the most comprehensive communications research, market data, and technology analysis in close to 100 markets around the world. Light Reading produces nearly 20 targeted communications events including TelcoTV, and TelcoTV Asia, Ethernet Expo New York and Ethernet Europe, and The Tower Summit @ CTIA, as well as focused one-day events tailored for cable, mobile, and wireline executives in the US, Europe, India, and China. Light Reading was acquired by United Business Media in August 2005 and operates as a unit of TechWeb.

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SOURCE Heavy Reading Cable Industry Insider