Tier 3 Operators Ramping VDSL2 in 2014

CAMPBELL, CA - Tier 3 operators in the U.S. are already heavily invested in FTTH networks and will continue to expand their fiber availability until they reach their entire subscriber base, according to new findings from Infonetics Research, an international market research and consulting firm serving the communications industry. The findings come from Infonetic's "Tier 3 Broadband Strategies and Vendor Leadership: North American Service Provider Survey," for which the company interviewed tier 3 operators in the U.S. to understand what types of fixed broadband speeds and technologies they deliver today, and how and when they plan to upgrade their subscribers to support higher data rates.

"But like other operators around the world outside of China," notes Jeff Heynen, principal analyst for broadband access and pay TV at Infonetics Research. "The long-term transition to fiber will happen incrementally, with fiber-to-the-node and fiber-to-the-curb deployments using VDSL2 as a critical, strategic tool in the effort to keep up with subscriber and network bandwidth demands."

Tier 3 Broadband Survey Highlights

• Only 5 percent of operators participating in Infonetics' survey are providing average downstream speeds of 100+ Mbps today, increasing to 45 percent by 2016


• Survey respondents expect capital expenditures earmarked for fixed broadband networks to remain flat


• After 2014, 55 to 75 percent of respondents plan to upgrade and expand their networks with 2.5G GPON and Ethernet FTTH


• Meanwhile, the percentage of respondents upgrading their networks with system-level vectored VDSL2 goes from 0 in 2013 to 30 percent in 2014


• A majority of those surveyed named Calix, Adtran, and Alcatel-Lucent as the top three fixed broadband access equipment suppliers