3M offers Slim Lock Closure for fiber to the antenna/Infonetics: Latin America is cable broadband market to watch

3M says its new Slim Lock Closure for wireless applications weatherproofs coaxial jumper cable connections on the cell tower where 7/16 DIN connectors are used. The compact closure protects connections at the antenna and remote radio unit (RRU) and complements fiber to the antenna (FTTA) installations.

According to 3M, FTTA cell tower architectures require a different weatherproofing approach from the traditional tapes and mastics. The Slim Lock Closure is specifically designed with a narrow body to fit into congested areas, such as compact tower-mounted RRUs and connection-rich multi-band, multi-service antennas, 3M asserts.

The hard plastic closure body snaps around the connection and latches shut, sealing out water. A compliant sealing gel inside the closure conforms to the connection and displaces air so that condensation cannot occur, 3M adds.

A tower technician can install a Slim Lock Closure in a minute or less, without tools, 3M continues. Slim Lock Closures can be repeatedly opened and closed for maintenance and testing. Moreover, the closure can be re-entered without disconnecting the antenna and interrupting service.

While North America was the only CMTS and edge QAM market to show sequential growth in the first quarter of 2012, market research firm Infonetics Research suggests equipment vendors should keep their eyes on Latin America.

“Latin America has become the most competitive and dynamic market for CMTS vendors, with market share fluctuating wildly from quarter to quarter,” notes Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband access and video at Infonetics Research. “Motorola regained the lead in the CALA region this quarter by a comfortable margin, whereas last quarter, Cisco surged and led with over half the market. Meanwhile, ARRIS was number-one in Latin America a year ago, dropped to a close third for the rest of 2011, but then popped up to second in the first quarter of 2012.”

Three major trends will ensure the Latin American CMTS market remains at a boil, according to Heynen:

The cable companies are locked in major battles with incumbent telcos for subscribers
CMTS vendors have reduced prices for their DOCSIS 3.0 line cards
A surge in sustained bandwidth use is coming as Netflix and other over-the-top video providers enter the market.

Looking at the global market’s performance as a whole for the first three months of the year, North American sales jumped 13%, according to the latest “CMTS and Edge QAM Hardware and Subscribers” market share and forecast report from Infonetics. The spending decline throughout the rest of the world is typical for the season, the report states. International operators often use the first quarter to absorb new capacity gained at the close of the previous year, Infonetics says.

Nevertheless, global CMTS port shipments hit record levels in the quarter, reaching 412,000. This 28% jump from the year-ago quarter derived from MSOs’ continued purchases of downstream and upstream CMTS capacity to deliver DOCSIS 3.0 and unicast video services.

Cisco benefited most from this trend and retained its worldwide CMTS revenue share lead with 55%. However, Motorola was the only CMTS vendor to see a revenue increase. Harmonic, thanks to its ongoing video on demand, linear broadcast, and SDV deployments with operators worldwide, held onto the top spot among edge QAM vendors.

The quarterly CMTS and edge QAM report provides worldwide and regional vendor market share, market size, and forecasts for standard and wideband cable broadband subscribers; upstream and downstream CMTS revenue and ports; and edge QAM channels and revenue by application, including linear broadcast TV, video on demand and unicast video, switched digital video, and DOCSIS.