Broadband Sales Pick Up

A year they would like to forget, this is how network equipment providers would describe 2009. While sales of broadband access systems declined 12 percent for the year, they showed signs of life as the year closed: DellOro Group determined that revenue increased by double digits in the fourth quarter of the year.The market research firm places a number of devices (EPON and GPON OLTs, VDSL DSLAMs, and DOCSIS 3.0 CMTS) into the broadband access bucket. The global downturn and market saturation were a couple of reasons for the downturn. Increased business competition, a rising volume of Internet traffic, government incentives, and operators desire to enable new revenue-generating services all contributed to the end of the year rebound. Consequently, the market research firm found that vendors experienced a 10 percent sequential and an 18 percent year over year sales increase at the last quarter of 2009.

So what does that mean for small and medium businesses? Companies are loosening up the purse springs. After the economic meltdown caught companies a bit by surprise in early 2009, they adjusted, and many put a hold on virtually all spending. However, that strategy can only work short term. Sooner or later, corporations will need additional network bandwidth, either to support their existing applications or for new requirements. So, many firms are moving ahead with required upgrades. If your company is not investing in its network infrastructure, chances are that some of your competitors are.