Cable Has Head Start in Race with DSL

Sep 1, 2001 12:00 PM, By EC&M Staff

Cable-based broadband services will become the dominating wireline broadband technology, says Allied Business Intelligence (ABI), an Oyster Bay, N.Y.-based technology research firm.

According to a recent ABI study, “Cable vs. DSL: The Race Is On,” revenues from cable broadband access subscriber fees will triple in the next five years, from $7.5 billion in 2001 to $22.2 billion in 2006. What's more, the subscriber base will grow from 14.2 million to 48.7 million over the same period.

ABI says cable modem technology will capitalize on its technological edge over the copper wire-based DSL: Hybrid fiber coaxial cable carries hundreds of times more data than a twisted pair of telephone wires, and solutions exist to eliminate interference problems created by the shared cable network.

“DSL providers have been sitting on their technology for too long, and in the last three years, have been in too much of a race to catch up with cable access to satisfactorily resolve issues of supply, deployment, and shared infrastructure access,” says report author Mark Fox. “They will certainly regroup, and DSL will still be a major player in the wireline broadband market, but by then, cable operators will have a firm grip on the market.”