Telecom equipment supplier Sercomm Corp (中磊) yesterday said revenue would continue to grow and reach a new record high this year, backed by strong demand in Europe, the US and China for more broadband bandwidth for high-resolution video streaming.
“We believe this year will be better than last year, driven by rising demand for broadband and the Internet of Things,” Sercomm chairman Paul Wang (王伯元) told reporters at the company’s annual media conference.
Sercomm revenue last year climbed 5 percent to an all-time high of NT$38.6 billion (US$1.32 billion), unfazed by an erosion of supply for raw materials, such as passive components, and a strong New Taiwan dollar.
Wang said he expects the adverse effects from the raw material supply crunch to subside this year.
However, demand remains strong as telecoms feel a growing need to expand bandwidth and boost data transmission speeds to at least 1 gigabit per second as more ultra-high-resolution 4K and 8K videos are posted online, Sercomm said.
“Over the past two to three years, demand for increased bandwidth has been climbing. Although demand from the US and Chinese markets are plateauing, we have not seen signs of an end to the growth yet,” Sercomm CEO James Wang (王煒) said.
Robust demand for fiber-to-the-home gateway units in China helped the company boost shipments to a new high of 33 million units last year, he said.
Globally, the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and other major sports events this year are expected to provide a new catalyst for over-the-top and cable TV providers to accelerate their bandwidth expansion to attract new subscribers, Wang said.
European markets are showing the fastest growth momentum, with Spain, France and Italy accelerating the replacement of copper wires with optical fibers, he said.
India will be a new growth engine this year, as the world’s second-most populous country is catching up on fiber-optic network deployment to cope with increasing demand for bandwidth, Wang said.
A new growth driver is expected to increase demand for deployment of Narrowband-Internet of Things networks, over which service providers can offer a wide range of applications, such as geolocation solutions or data tracking on water meters, Sercomm said.
The new technology will make it easier to deploy Internet of Things devices for data tracking, the company said.
The company forecast that 5G small-cell base stations would only start creating meaningful revenue in 2020, as telecoms will deploy macro base stations first.
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