Communications and Technology Industry Research

The digital subscriber line test equipment market is seeing a growth even in this down economy, an IT market research firm is reporting, thanks to the increasing popularity of xDSL technology.

 

Frost & Sullivan attributes the popularity of xDSL technology to its ability to offer triple play services and compete against modern fiber and cable technologies.

 

The firm’s analysis, “World xDSL Test Equipment Market,” finds that xDSL test equipment market earned $253 million in 2008 and could reach $380 million in 2013.

 

According to Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert), xDSL’s offer of triple play keeps broadband adoption rates increasing at a considerable pace, even in times of this economic downturn.

 

By offering triple play in the DSL deployments, service providers can increase their average revenue per user. Since service providers offer these services in their existing, aging copper lines, it becomes important to test and monitor these copper lines before and after xDSL deployment, the research finds.

 

According to Frost & Sullivan Senior Research Analyst Sivakumar Narayanaswamy, legacy DSL technologies have also evolved due to the accessibility of alternate technologies at a time when there was a demand for higher rates for implementing Internet Protocol television and voice-on-demand features.

 

Narayanaswamy noted that the availability of techniques such as copper bonding that use inverse multiplexing methods and deep fiber rollouts with very high bit rate DSL2 will further sustain the market.

 

However, a number of factors are of concern to the industry. The impact of economic downturn could be visible in the xDSL test equipment market in the near feature, notes Frost & Sullivan. The situation may lead to capex freezing by service providers, carriers, and network equipment manufacturers. In turn, it may affect test equipment vendors.

 

The deployment of DSL lines and xDSL test equipment could also be hit with customers looking to stretch the use of the installed base during this phase of budgetary limits. In such a situation, it is ideal for test equipment vendors to offset some of the cost issues by offering a better functionality and improved features.

 

The increasing demand for cost-effective test equipments prompts vendors in this space to seek greater integration of test solutions that satisfy the testing requirement of converging technologies used in deploying broadband, Narayanaswamy added. “They must also invest more in research and development to address complex testing requirements and offer easy-to-use equipment.”