iSuppli: Cable, Telcos in Bundle Brawl

Says Research Firm iSuppli

By Greg Scoblete -- TWICE, 3/4/2009

New York — Cable-delivered digital voice continues to peel away customers from traditional telephony companies, but those companies are beginning to ramp up their own television services as telco TV enters its growth phase.

Such was the assessment of the research firm iSuppli in a recent report.

Cable-delivered digital voice continued to steal customers from traditional telco providers, with cable companies adding 4.3 million new voice lines, led by Comcast and Time Warner. Cable also enjoyed success on the data front, adding 4 million broadband subscribers.

The phone companies, on the other hand, experienced a sharp contraction in new broadband subscriber growth. In North America, telcos added 3.1 million new broadband subs, down 56.1 percent from 2007’s 6.5 million. Fiber-optic home deployments grew 90 percent, however, with VDSL connections up 54 percent vs. 2007.

Telephone companies have had better luck with TV, adding 8.8 million subs in 2008 for a total of 18.5 million subs. iSuppli said that telco-delivered TV had emerged from the early adopter stage and hit the “growth stage.” Global revenues from equipment in the telco TV market hit $5.8 billion in 2008 and will enjoy a 20 percent compound annual growth rate over the next five years, the firm said.

“The broadband subscriber bundle battle will intensify during 2009, even in the face of economic conditions,” iSuppli predicted.

On the equipment front, Motorola held the market share lead in the cable modem market, followed by Cisco, Arris and Thomson — just as in 2007, iSuppli said.