Dell’Oro Group Reports North American PON Spending Rose 26% Year-Over-Year in 2Q 2026
45th article in the last 90 days, one of 258 articles referencing Dell'Oro Group. Previous coverage: Dell’Oro Group Reports Ethernet Extends Lead as AI Back-End Switch Sales Surpass Front-End in 2Q 2026 (Sep 2026).
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North American telco and cable operators increased spending on PON equipment in 2Q 2026, supporting three consecutive quarters of year-over-year growth despite a global Broadband Access revenue decline.
Market overview
Dell’Oro Group reported global revenue for the Broadband Access equipment market reached $4.5 billion in 2Q 2026, down 3% year-over-year. The report states North American telco and cable operators “buck[ed] the downward trend” while investing in fiber and DOCSIS 4.0 network upgrades.
The report attributes higher costs for infrastructure and CPE to ongoing shortages of memory and other components.
North America spending and capacity gear
The report describes “three consecutive quarters of Y/Y growth in spending on PON equipment” for North American operators, which it says resembles the boom year of 2022. Jeff Heynen, Vice President with Dell’Oro Group, said operators are “pulling forward equipment purchases once again to stay ahead of increasing ASPs for both OLTs and ONTs.”
For North America, it reports PON spending jumped 26% year-over-year and cable remote OLT-related port shipments increased 190% year-over-year.
Other quarterly highlights
Residential Wi-Fi and router shipments increased, with residential router shipments up 62% year-over-year, supported by lower-cost dual-band units shipping in China and Southeast Asia. The report also says US operators pulled forward purchases to support multi-gig service offerings.
For cable modernization, the report states combined revenue for Remote PHY Device (RPD) and Remote OLT (R-OLT) platforms rose 63% year-over-year. It also reports FWA CPE unit shipments declined 12% year-over-year, citing a slowdown in new unit sales in North America.
This Analyst Signals brief reflects a neutral, fact-based summary of the original research note.
Blog post, originally published at delloro.com.