A 3 per cent dip in global revenue belies strong North American investment in fibre, DOCSIS 4.0, and Wi-Fi 7 hardware.
Global revenue for broadband access equipment fell 3 per cent year-on-year to $4.5 billion in the second quarter of 2026. However, North American telecommunications and cable operators bucked the broader downturn, maintaining heavy investment in major fibre and Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification – DOCSIS 4.0 network upgrades despite component shortages and rising hardware costs.
“North American operators are moving quickly to expand and turn up their fibre networks, resulting in three consecutive quarters of year-on-year growth in spending on PON (Passive Optical Network) equipment reminiscent of the boom year of 2022,” said Jeff Heynen, Vice President at Dell’Oro. “Operators are clearly pulling forward equipment purchases once again to stay ahead of increasing average selling prices for both OLTs and ONTs.”
Residential Wi-Fi 7 router shipments maintained strong momentum, soaring 62% year-on-year. This growth was driven by affordable dual-band units in China and South-East Asia, alongside US providers advancing purchases to support multi-gigabit service tiers.
Cable providers also continued modernising their infrastructure through sustained Remote PHY Device (RPD) and Remote OLT (R-OLT) procurement, driving a combined 63% year-on-year jump in revenue for those platforms. Conversely, fixed wireless access (FWA) customer premises equipment shipments fell 12 per cent year-on-year, primarily due to a drop in new unit sales across North America.
