News

Networking at Home Not Just a North America and Asia Pacific Phenomenon (20/10/2003)

As is the case with North America and Asia Pacific, increased broadband subscriber growth in Western Europe is resulting in an uptick in home networking activity, reports In-Stat/MDR (http://www.instat.com). The growth of home broadband connections in Western Europe was quite promising last year, and this trend is expected to continue. The high-tech market research firm reports that, by the end of 2003, there will be 4.5 million home networks in Western Europe, compared to 2.8 million home networks at the end of 2002, accounting for an almost 60% annual growth rate. In-Stat/MDR expects that there will be over 15 million home networks in Western Europe by the end of 2007.

"In Western Europe, the very populous countries of Germany and the UK are demonstrating a healthy uptake in residential broadband," says Gemma Paulo, a Senior Analyst with In-Stat/MDR. "Some of the less populous countries, especially in northern Europe and Scandinavia, though, have adopted home broadband at much higher rates. Naturally, a growing segment of these home broadband users desire to share this Internet access, via a home network, among multiple users."

In-Stat/MDR has also found that:

* Top home networking hardware vendors in Europe include Netgear, D-Link and Belkin. Up-and-comers include Linksys (Cisco) and Buffalo. These vendors are market leaders in home wired and wireless clients and routers. Thomson Multimedia, Efficient Networks (Siemens) and Westell are strong with their DSL broadband modems, and Motorola, Thomson Multimedia, Toshiba, and Terayon are the leaders in the cable broadband modem market segment. 2Wire is noticeably strong in the Residential Gateway (RG) market, with Netgear and other home networking vendors beginning to push aggressively into this space.

* As is the case with worldwide Customer Premise Equipment (CPE), the overall CPE unit shipments to Western Europe are expected to flatten out over the next 2-3 years, and then start to decrease noticeably in 2006 and 2007. This is a result of several factors, including the rise of the RG, which eliminates the need for multiple boxes in order to set up a home network. Another factor will be the slowing of the annual growth rate in home broadband subscribers throughout the forecast period, as many countries reach the saturation point of broadband households.

* In Western Europe, it is common that broadband service providers push out the broadband modem device. However, Western Europeans tend to purchase home networking equipment, such as routers and clients, at brick and mortar computer retail stores, through catalogs and computer magazines, and through regional on-line websites.

The report, "The Western European Home Networking Market" (#IN030817RC),looks at the growing uptake in home networking throughout Western Europe. It includes the following: an examination and forecast of the growing number of broadband homes in the region, by country; an analysis and forecast of home CPE equipment, including modems, home routers, and RGs; an analysis of Western European CPE Channels; Western European home networks forecast, by country; and vendor profiles of the top networking equipment vendors.

www.instat.com