Broadband service operators globally are increasingly making use of residential gateways to provide wireless delivery of multiscreen (mobile phones, PCs and tablets) video to viewers in the home. The percentage of operators offering such services through residential gateways will grow fast, reaching 50% by 2014 from just 6% today, according to new research from Infonetics.
Differentiating their basic pay-TV services and retaining subscribers (either from rivals or from cutting the cord entirely) is a big factor underlying broadband service operators’ increasing use of residential gateways, according to Infonetics.
“Operators continue to morph their fixed broadband network strategies to focus not only on the size of the connection to the subscriber, but also on the services and revenue these broadband connections can deliver,” commented Infonetics’ directing analyst for broadband access and pay-TV Jeff Heynen. “Residential gateways are critical to ensuring the successful delivery of these services within the home, particularly video services.”
Highlights of Infonetics’ latest residential gateway survey include:
- Broadband data, IPTV, WiFi hotspot access, and VoIP are the main applications operator respondents are currently offering using a residential gateway
- The number of operators offering home automation services using a residential gateway grows to 44% by 2014
- Well over half of respondents are using copper Ethernet to deliver broadband services
- Huawei and ZTE are perceived as the top residential gateway vendors by over a third of survey respondents
