Jeff Heynen, VP at Dell’Oro Group, told RCR Wireless that cable infrastructure upgrades will play a central role in the recovery of the broadband access equipment market this year
In sum – what to know:
Market rebound – Broadband access equipment spending is set to recover in 2026 after three years of reduced operator investment.
DOCSIS upgrades – North American cable operators, including Comcast and Charter Communications, are expected to accelerate DOCSIS 4.0 and DAA spending.
Wi-Fi 7 adoption – Operators are split between integrated gateways and modular “two-box” setups, with some delaying full adoption ahead of Wi-Fi 8.
The global broadband access equipment market is expected to return to growth in 2026 following three years of constrained spending, according to a new report from Dell’Oro Group.
The firm reported that total broadband access equipment market revenue reached $4.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, up 7% quarter-over-quarter and 2% year-over-year. However, full-year 2025 remained negative, reflecting what Dell’Oro describes as a multi-year period of reduced capital expenditure by broadband providers.
Jeff Heynen, vice president at Dell’Oro Group noted that broadband service providers have been carefully managing their equipment spending over the last three years, focusing on subscriber acquisition and more measured footprint expansions. As a result, there was a clear shift in spend away from infrastructure and towards CPE, he said.
According to Dell’Oro, PON ONT unit shipments reached 158 million units globally, while 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) customer premises equipment (CPE) shipments rose 11% in 2025. Residential Wi-Fi 7 router shipments increased 211%, driven largely by lower-cost devices in Asia, according to the report.
At the same time, spending on DOCSIS equipment declined 21% year-over-year in 2025, with remote PHY devices down 47%. This trend is expected to reverse in 2026, according to the research firm.
In an interview with RCR Wireless News, Heynen said cable infrastructure upgrades will play a central role in the recovery: “We expect to see a significant increase in spending on DAA and outside plant equipment to support improved DOCSIS 3.1 and DOCSIS 4.0 deployments for cable operators in 2026. In fact, we expect to see spending on cable access concentrators, which includes remote PHY devices, remote OLTs, and virtual CMTS platforms to jump 29% from 2025. The vast majority of the spending increase will be in North America, where the two largest DOCSIS 4.0 upgrades at Comcast and Charter will accelerate,” said Heynen.
On home networking, operators are taking varied approaches to adopting Wi-Fi 7. “We saw operators taking really different approaches to Wi-Fi 7. Among cable operators, for example, Charter is moving forward with a two-box approach to Wi-Fi 7, using a standalone DOCSIS 3.1 or DOCSIS 4.0 modem, the spectrum advanced Wi-Fi router, and Wi-Fi 6 pods from Plume for mesh, while Comcast is integrating Wi-Fi 7 directly into a DOCSIS 4.0 gateway.”
“Most fiber providers are also still using a two-box approach, while in China, fiber-to-the-room is driving increasing volumes of lower-cost dual-band Wi-Fi 7 ONT gateways. Finally, FWA providers like T-Mobile use integrated gateways with Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 7. Among those operators who prefer the two-box approach, one of the reasons they are doing so is because they expect Wi-Fi 8 to be available shortly and don’t want to be stuck with Wi-Fi 7 units that don’t incorporate the updated feature set that Wi-Fi 8 brings,” Heynen added.
Global spending on broadband access equipment is expected to peak at $18.8 billion in 2028, according to a previous forecast from Dell’Oro.
The firm projected last month that the market will grow at a modest 0.3% average annual rate between 2025 and 2030, supported by ongoing DOCSIS 4.0 upgrades and continued fiber expansion by cable and fiber operators.
