DOCSIS 3.0 Could Eat Telcos' Lunch in Europe

Super-fast broadband (50 Mbps and up) rollout is accelerating across Europe, with targets indicating almost 50% coverage by 2015. However, telco incumbents face stiff competition from cable operators in bringing an economically viable offering to market, according to the report "Super-fast broadband: catch up if you can" from consultancy Arthur D. Little.With cable operators driving the super-fast broadband market using DOCSIS 3.0 technology, telcos must catch up by deploying fiber to the home (FTTH) in major population centers, even though economic returns are uncertain. In the nine local markets analyzed in the report (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Netherlands and Belgium), telcos will have to invest additional capex totaling €18-40 billion, which could increase domestic fixed-line capex/sales ratios by 2.5-5%.