Huge market potential for Ethernet over coax in China; cablecos prepare for broadband fight

USA: Infonetics Research released excerpts from a new report, Ethernet over Coax (EoC) Equipment and Subscribers in China, which tracks market size and subscribers for EoC master/headend and modem hardware.

“The number of TV subscribers in China is 200 million and growing fast, presenting a huge opportunity for cable TV operators there to become significant fixed broadband service providers, challenging China Telecom and China Unicom”

“The number of TV subscribers in China is 200 million and growing fast, presenting a huge opportunity for cable TV operators there to become significant fixed broadband service providers, challenging China Telecom and China Unicom,” notes Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband access and pay TV at Infonetics Research.
“Given China’s unique multi-dwelling unit-dominated environment, cable operators are using Ethernet over Coax technology to quickly roll out broadband services to compete with fiber deployments.”

Heynen continues: “But the cable companies are in the process of consolidating and retooling, and given the organizational and operational challenges that lay ahead, they’ll want to spread EoC rollouts over a longer period of time as they sort out which technologies to use, which markets to target first, and how to best market services they have little to no experience providing.”

EoC market highlights
* Infonetics forecasts the market for Ethernet over Coax (EoC) equipment in China, including master/headend units and modems, to grow at a 33 percent CAGR from 2011 to 2016.

* EoC modem shipments are expected to grow sixfold by 2016, when they will make up around 70 percent of the total EoC revenue.

* There are currently 3.7 million EoC subscribers in China, growing to nearly 24 million by 2016.