Belgium, Portugal, the Nordic Countries, Switzerland and the UK all recorded high growth in the cable modem shipment market last year, according to research from Dataquest. Overall, though, the growth rate in cable modem shipments slowed compared to 2000.

Dataquest found that in 2001, the EMEA (European, Middle East and Africa) cable modem market grew 48 per cent (compared to 155 per cent in 2000) to around 1.4 million units. Revenues topped $190 million in 2001, down on the year due mainly to a fall in the price of cable modems.

Motorola, Com21 and Terayon - the largest cable modem vendors in EMEA - accounted for more than four out of five shipments in 2001.

Looking ahead, Gartner forecasts that shipments in the EMEA cable modem market will almost triple to almost four million units by the end of 2006 compared to 2001.

It also expects the market to record a 34 percent growth in 2002 and reach $200 million in 2002.

Separately, Dataquest claims that 2002 will see the first revenue decline for xDSL equipment in EMEA since 1998.

It forecasts that total xDSL equipment revenue will fall by eight per cent in 2002. It seems this reversal is due to telcos having an excess of equipment.

However, once this excess has been used up as the roll-out of xDSL continues, equipment growth should resume - probably sometime next year, say the analysts. ®