Premises Cabling Market Reaches Saturation Point

Aug 1, 2000 12:00 PM, By EC&M Staff

A recent market research study of the U.S. premises cabling system market, conducted by World Information Technologies, Inc., Northport, N.Y., indicates the market has passed its high growth point and is entering a low phase. Market saturation of data cabling for Fortune 1000 firms occurred in 1999, when the larger firms installed their LAN cabling at major locations.

The study also examined the horizontal UTP cable shipments over the past five years, showing a crossover in 1999 of the 10 million node potential for all Fortune 1000 firms. Since horizontal UTP cabling accounts for more than two-thirds of the market, the drop in growth of UTP cable shipments will have a profound impact on the market.

These implications are enormous for suppliers. In the past, manufacturing capacity constraints or material shortages slowed the market. Now, it's the demand side prompting the decline. Frank Murawski, project director of the study, says this means both good and bad news. "The bad news is that the high double digit growth days of premises cabling systems are behind us. The industry will have to learn to live with a small single digit growth in the future," he says. "The good news is the market is at a high level of shipping over 10 billion feet of UTP cable per year over the next five years, which is still an enormous market opportunity." What does this mean? According to the study, it looks like fiber to the desk will not become a major market in the next five years. For more information, call (631) 754-5700.