Cable Broadband Market Declines; Motorola Surges

According to a new study from Synergy Research Group, the worldwide broadband-equipment market continues to weaker, but thanks to strength in the cable segment Motorola has achieved its highest quarterly market share position since 2000. Other broadband competitors, Alcatel, Siemens and Cisco have seen their broadband sales slide 28 percent, 21 percent and 16 percent, respectively, driven by lower volume and falling prices.

"The DSL equipment market continues to be under tremendous pressure from the meltdown in carrier CapEx spending," said Stan Zhiyong Zou, industry analyst at Synergy. "While the cable broadband market is experiencing softer decreases driven by cable operators selectively investing so as to provision voice, video and data giving vendors such as Motorola a push in market share."

Synergy anticipates cable broadband to generate more attention over the next two quarters as cable broadband vendors continue to move to DOCSIS and PacketCable standards.

The worldwide broadband-equipment market dropped 19 percent sequentially during the third quarter of 2002. The CapEx downturn continues to place negative pressure on broadband equipment sales growth, especially in North America and Europe. This has propelled Asia Pacific as the second largest DSL equipment market -- surpassing North America for two quarters in a row.