Solid CCAP Demand: A Boon for Cable TV Equipment Makers - Analyst Blog

Rapidly growing demand for the next-generation Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP) spells good times for cable TV gear manufacturers. According to a recent report by Infonetics Research Inc., global revenues generated by the CCAP segment rose 7% sequentially to $360 million in the third quarter of 2014.

The combined shipments of upstream and downstream DOCSIS channels for CCAP, CMTS, edge QAM modulator and coaxial media converts stood at around 1.2 million generating total revenue of $445 million.

CCAP technology helps cable TV operators to maximize bandwidth, simplify the operational structure and evolve according to subscribers' demand. Meanwhile, several analysts have estimated that the CCAP market opportunity may reach around $1.7 billion by 2018. Major CCAP vendors who will benefit from this trend are Arris Group Inc. (ARRS), Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) and Casa Systems Inc.

The demand for CCAP is strongest in the North America. In this region, large telecom operators pose major threat to cable TV operators leveraging their fiber-based high-speed video network. Moreover, AT&T Inc. (T), CenturyLink Inc. (CTL) and Google Fiber Inc. are rapidly rolling out gigabit wireline network.

These developments have compelled cable TV operators to offer various innovative services like IP-video and cloud-based services to stay abreast. Thus, cable TV operators highly depend on CCAP to achieve faster processing speeds.     

In May 2013, Casa Systems was the first company to commercially introduce an integrated CCAP device. Following this, in Jun 2013, Arris declared that Comcast, the largest customer of the company, had initiated the commercial deployment of its E6000 Converged Edged Router.

The E6000 router acts as a high-density powerful C4 cable modem termination system (CMTS) for the company which can also be conveniently converted into a CCAP. This eliminates the need for a separate edge QAM device at the cable TV operators' end.