VDSL and the emergence of its younger brother VDSL2 may be limited by loop length requirements, but a new report from IHS iSuppli suggests that VDSL-based services will quadruple by 2014.
Driven by incumbent and competitive provider deployments of the technology, the research firm forecasts that VDSL subscribership will grow from just 15.6 million users in 2009 to 60.1 million by 2014. In 2010 alone, service providers signed up 23.3 million VDSL subscribers.
Service providers that aren't ready to make a wholesale change to expand their FTTH footprints outside of Greenfield areas such as AT&T, Qwest, and independent ILEC TDS Telecom have been implementing a Fiber to the Node (FTTN)-based network architecture that leverages VDSL2 to deliver the services the home over existing copper. At the same time, there have been a number of new innovations from the likes of Alcatel-Lucent, ASSIA, Huawei, and Nokia Siemens Networks that claim to expand the rate and reach of copper beyond what VDSL2 can do today.
Of course, the adoption of VDSL technologies is being driven by the consumer's appetite to simultaneously access multiple forms of entertainment in their home. Whether it's IPTV delivered to the TV set, online video or online gaming, these applications will require 50-100 Mbps connections.
At the same time, iSuppli notes that there are competitive shifts taking place in the VDSL silicon industry. Ikanos, in particular--a company that's seen its market share decline from 75 percent to 55 percent--will face increased competition from not only established silicon Broadcom and Lantiq, but also Ralink, which plans to launch a VDSL chip this quarter.
For more:
- ipTVnews has this article
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