
Why This Matters: The emergence of distributed, virtualized cable access technologies is prompting operators to put off some infrastructure purchases.
It came as no surprise to anyone in the cable network-technology business that research company Dell'Oro Group's newly released first-quarter data showed that CCAP tech sales had slid 38% to $275 million during the first three months of the year.
Earnings reports delivered in April and May had already told the tale.
CommScope, making its first earnings call since closing on its Arris acquisition, reported an 18% first-quarter revenue slide in its network and cloud business. That was followed closely by the Casa Systems report that its overall business, which is more concentrated in CCAP sales, declined 55.6% during the quarter.
Harmonic, which is introducing a disruptive virtualized Converged Cable Access Platform technology called CableOS, saw a 30% decline in first-quarter revenue.
The cause of this downturn is hardly recessionary. Rather, the consensus is that operators have their hands full making decisions regarding Distributed Access Architecture, and how to reconcile it with CCAP virtualization and all the other 10G technologies coming down the CableLabs pipeline.
What, and Why, On DAA
DAA is the next-generation hybrid fiber coaxial network configuration in which functions like PHY and MAC/PHY, which have traditionally resided in the headend, are moved closer to the user. According to CableLabs, moving these functions into the network reduces the amount of hardware and power and cooling needs within the headend, creating efficiencies in speed, reliability, latency and security. All of these things are needed for the 10G future.
In his report, Dell'Oro analyst Jeff Heynen said operators are pushing off new capacity purchases while they determine how to move forward with distributed access architectures.
Both in North America and in Europe, cable access tech vendors had expected to see large-scale deployments this year for Remote PHY and Remote MAC/PHY. But so far, those deployments and their associated orders haven't materialized.
John Chapman, chief technology officer of cable access and a fellow at Cisco Systems
We have DAA just ready to get out the door, said John Chapman, chief technology officer of cable access and a fellow at Cisco Systems, speaking on a panel at the recent ANGA COM in Cologne, Germany, as reported by Light Reading. We have 100 customers that have bought DAA but are waiting to do it.
Asaf Matatyaou, VP of solutions and product management for cable edge business at Harmonic, sees the issue as multifaceted.
He compared sales of legacy CCAP technology to the consumer market for iPhones. Even if a user needs a new smartphone today, they're often going to push off that purchase until the next generation of hardware arrives.
In the case of DAA and virtualized CCAP, those products are available now. But operators, Matatyaou explained, aren't ready to deploy them in mass. He said operators were enthralled with early CableLabs lab demonstrations of DAA, the first of which showed interoperability with data.
But it's one thing to demo it in a lab, it's quite another to deploy all the other services you need [in DAA], Matatyaou pointed out. Even though there's a lot of value in DAA, you have to bring to bear operational best practices as well as people familiar with how to deploy and maintain it.
Beyond these reasons, operators are being slowed by the plethora of new 10G-related HFC network technology being put forth by CableLabs. Beyond just network virtualization, engineers need to reconcile such forward-looking technologies as Full Duplex DOCSIS, Extended Frequency DOCSIS and Low Latency DOCSIS, just to name a few technologies, into their DAA planning.
That's not to say the market is totally paralyzed.
In terms of CCAP virtualization, a source close to Buckeye Broadband told Multichannel News that the tier-2 operator recently cleared out CCAP gear in more than a dozen locations and was able to consolidate it into several off-the-shelf x86-powered servers running CableOS, all of which fit onto one rack.
In Europe, Vodafone Germany is trying to move quickly with DAA. And Com Hem, Stofa and TDS in Scandinavia are all in the midst of DAA projects, Heynen said.
Among U.S. tier 1 operators, Comcast is closest to a major deployment of CCAP virtualization and DAA. According to Heynen, the top North American cable operator is on the verge of deploying significant CableOS channels in the second half of 2019.
Comcast is in the very early stages of its R-PHY deployment and will likely use a combination of gear from Harmonic, Arris and Cisco, with Arris and Cisco providing R-PHY nodes tied to existing E6000 and CBR-8 CCAP cores, Heynen said.
Hurdles Leading to Lumpy' Rollout
That's not to say the overall business of selling network gear to telecoms is soft right now. The global market for all access gear was down by 2% in the first quarter to $2.9 billion. Dell'Oro said deployments of fiber-to-the-home networks capable of data speeds of 10 Gigabits per second, such as the one Altice USA is building in its Optimum footprint, drove increased shipments of XPON1, XGSPON and NG-PON2 OLT ports.
And while tier-1 operators are like Comcast and Charter Communications are largely done with the CCAP purchasing needed to build their DOCSIS 3.1 networks, deployments of 1-Gbps-capable modems are ongoing.
Dell'Oro found a 19% uptick in CPE units shipped during the first quarter.
Why This Matters: The emergence of distributed, virtualized cable access technologies is prompting operators to put off some infrastructure purchases.
It came as no surprise to anyone in the cable network-technology business that research company Dell'Oro Group's
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
07/08/2025
July 8 2025, 22:30 (PDT) Tata Motors & Dolby Bring Dolby Atmos to Harrier.ev, R...
18/07/2025
Blanche Barton, Peter Gilmore, Scott Cummings, Sundance Institute Director of Programming Kim Yutani, and Peggy Nadramia throwing horns. (Stephen Lovekin/Shutte...
18/07/2025
By Jessica Herndon
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Fest...
18/07/2025
BOSTON Sports network NESN today relaunched the NESN 360 app with a redesigned user experience and upgrades....
18/07/2025
Berklee Singers Wow the Competition on Netflixs Building the Band Netflixs new music competition show features two Berklee artists looking to make their pop b...
18/07/2025
As the House of Representatives voted early Friday morning to eliminate federal funding for public broadcasting, advocates warned that the elimination of $1 bil...
18/07/2025
DENVER Imagine Communications has announced that it is deepening its commitment to the North American sports and live events market with investments in its prod...
18/07/2025
LOS GATOS, Calif. Netflix once again reported strong financial growth, with revenue increasing 16% year-over-year to $11.079 billion in Q2 2025 as net income s...
18/07/2025
Live from the 153rd Open Championship: SMT Enhances Video Board Experience; Enab...
18/07/2025
ShotTracker's Davyeon Ross on Revolutionizing Basketball On the Court and ...
18/07/2025
Home Pitch: How the Danish League Brought Its Live Match Production In-House Matchday Production produced 800+ matches across Denmark in its first year By Geor...
18/07/2025
Live From the 153rd Open Championship: EMG Debuts Spidercam for Golf, Expands Su...
18/07/2025
Usyk vs Dubois II: Bringing the fight to life with state of the art cameras and ...
18/07/2025
Usyk vs Dubois II: DAZN's head of boxing Chris Glanville talks helicopters, ...
18/07/2025
Live From the 153rd Open Championship: NBC Expands Unilateral Effort; Shared Stu...
18/07/2025
Warner Bros. Discovery's Anne Graham on Training New Professionals to Ensure...
18/07/2025
Live From the 153rd Open Championship: How R&A Spidercam Became a Reality for Go...
18/07/2025
ESPN Bulks Up Onsite Studios, Cameras, Player Mics for WNBA All-Star Weekend Besides the game, four studio shows will be produced onsite By Jason Dachman, Edit...
18/07/2025
Friday 18 July 2025
Credit: Marc Sethi
The Sky Arts Awards will return on 16 September, once again taking place at the iconic Roundhouse in London. Produced b...
18/07/2025
This month, players can dive into special crossover events featuring SpongeBob SquarePants in Snake.io+ and Crossy Road Castle, available exclusively on Apple A...
18/07/2025
Up for the Match brings the fun, the passion-and a bit of Riverdance- tomorrow n...
17/07/2025
Blanche Barton, Peter Gilmore, Scott Cummings, Sundance Institute Director of Programming Kim Yutani, and Peggy Nadramia throwing horns. (Stephen Lovekin/Shutte...
17/07/2025
Spotify's goal with audiobooks is to help grow the publishing industry and create the best possible experience for booklovers, which is why we're launch...
17/07/2025
An advanced large solid rocket motor hot fire test conducted at L3Harris' Camden, Arkansas, site....
17/07/2025
L3Harris payloads and components have been on board every U.S. GPS satellite-more than 70 missions since the 1970s. Our technology is at the core of GPS availab...
17/07/2025
L3Harris' pack of launched effects is comprised of multi-role vehicles that ...
17/07/2025
NEW YORK - July 17, 2025 - Gracenote, the content data business unit of Nielsen, has announced the appointment of Ryan Moore to the new role of Chief Business O...
17/07/2025
READING, Pa. Network technology startup Miri Technologies has added David Cohen as vice president, business development. He'll be tasked with expanding the ...
17/07/2025
Berklee Wins CASE Award for Standout Digital Campaign The Alumni Affairs team's Variations Signature Series earned recognition for offering an authentic p...
17/07/2025
Early Thursday morning, the U.S. Senate voted to cut federal funding for PBS and NPR in a bill that also included cuts for foreign aid. In a 51-48 vote, the act...
17/07/2025
GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland Pavilions across IBC2025 (12 15 September, RAI Amsterdam) feature a remarkable 34 companies, each providing unique, innovativ...
17/07/2025
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers today introduced its Content Provenance and Authenticity (CPA) in Media Study Group (S...
17/07/2025
NEW YORK Despite widespread concerns about a soft advertising market, NBCUniversal said it closed its 2025-26 upfront negotiation cycle with a record ad sales v...
17/07/2025
NEW YORK Television advertising remains an effective means to market and influence younger baby boomer and Generation X consumers approaching retirement age, ac...
17/07/2025
ALLENTOWN, Pa. & JERSEY CITY, N.J. Service Electric Cable TV and OpenVault have announced that the operator is deploying the OpenVault Proactive Network Manage...
17/07/2025
WASHINGTON Following up on his first major policy speech just two ago, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr is promising to buck the usual summ...
17/07/2025
Luxembourg, 14 July 2025 - SES received the final regulatory approvals for the SES-Intelsat transaction, including the US Federal Communications Commission.
O...
17/07/2025
Berklee Alumni Nominated for 2025 Emmy Awards Twenty-seven Berklee alumni received nominations across categories in sound mixing, sound editing, and compositi...
17/07/2025
Back to All News
What We Watched the First Half of 2025
Entertainment
17 July 2025
Global
Link copied to clipboard
Today, we're sharing our latest Eng...
17/07/2025
Cast your vote in 2 categories for Ivory 3 American Concert DIvory 3 American Concert D is in the 2025 MIDI Innovation Awards and we are honored to be nominated...
17/07/2025
SVG Sit-Down: OpenDrives' Sean Lee, Michael Wilsker, and Jason Matousek on E...
17/07/2025
Oracle's Geoff Tognetti on Staying Ahead of the AI Curve Through Further Ado...
17/07/2025
NBA's Summer League Is a Hot Bed of AI, Immersive Innovation Testing Audio mixing, intelligent camera framing are among AI-driven efforts By Ken Kerschbaum...
17/07/2025
SVG's TranSPORT Conference Returns to NYC on Oct. 21; Register Today! By SVG Staff
Thursday, July 17, 2025 - 8:29 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
St...
17/07/2025
Gravity Media chosen as group name for merged OB business By George Bevir
Wednesday, July 16, 2025 - 11:30
Print This Story
Gravity Media executive chairm...
17/07/2025
SES Closes Deal to Acquire Intelsat, Creating New Giant in Satellite Connectivit...
17/07/2025
How MLB Pulled Off That Unforgettable Hank Aaron Tribute at the All-Star Game Vintage content, state-of-the-art projection/processing combine in marvelous mile...
17/07/2025
Wuppertal July 17, 2025
Riedel Communications Powers Handa Opera on Sydney Har...