CommScope shipped about $50 million DOCSIS 4.0 amps (including FDX amps) in Q4 2024, and expects FDX amp shipments to hit $300 million in 2025, CEO Chuck Treadway said. FDX amps are a critical piece of Comcast's DOCSIS 4.0 puzzle.
CommScope said it's making progress with nodes and amps that support Full Duplex (FDX), an option for DOCSIS 4.0 that is being championed by Comcast.
In Q4, CommScope delivered "meaningful shipments of FDX nodes to Comcast and expect to significantly ramp up shipments in 2025," Chuck Treadway, CommScope's president and CEO, said Wednesday on the company's Q4 2024 earnings call.
Full Duplex allows a cable operator to run upstream and downstream traffic in the same block of spectrum. FDX was originally designed to operate on hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) networks built to 1.2GHz, but a new family of "unified" chips for amps, nodes and cable modems from Broadcom support FDX rollouts on HFC built to 1.8GHz. The other option for DOCSIS 4.0, called Extended Spectrum DOCSIS (ESD) or Frequency Division Duplex (FDD), keeps upstream and downstream spectrum running in dedicated spectrum on plant built to 1.8GHz. The cable industry is also exploring a future version of DOCSIS that extends spectrum to 3GHz and raises downstream capacity to 25 Gbit/s.
Comcast's wide rollout of DOCSIS 4.0 is dependent on a new class of FDX amplifier that CommScope has developed. Sercomm has also tossed its hat into the FDX amplifier fray.
Comcast has deployed D4.0 to more than 1 million homes and businesses. The Philadelphia-based operator could provide an update on its D4.0 progress at Cable-Next Gen Technologies & Strategies 2025, set for March 24-26 in Denver. Elad Nafshi, Comcast's EVP and chief network officer, is scheduled to deliver the opening keynote on Tuesday, March 25.
Treadway said the launch and deployment of FDX and unified products will support a rebound at its Access Networks Solutions (ANS) unit. Q4 sales at ANS rose 12% to $261 million.
Amps a big part of CommScope's cable biz
CommScope CFO Kyle Lorentzen estimated that amps represent 40% to 50% of ANS's business, and FDX amps delivered a "relatively modest" part of that total in Q4. However, CommScope expects to see "a pretty substantial ramp" as FDX amps are rolled out more broadly in 2025, he said.
Treadway was even more specific, noting that CommScope shipped about $50 million of DOCSIS 4.0 amps (including the FDX variety) in Q4 2024, and expects FDX amplifier shipments to reach $300 million or more in 2025. But he noted that FDX amps sales are not completely incremental given that FDX "could cannibalize some of the previous generation amplifier products."
CommScope is also making progress with its virtual cable modem termination system (vCMTS), a platform that's been aided by the company's recent acquisition of Casa Systems' cable assets at auction.
Treadway said CommScope's vCMTS has completed multiple lab trials and is now into the field trial stage.
Raymond James expects CommScope's cable momentum to continue as it expands its position at Comcast and as Charter Communications starts to accelerate its HFC network upgrade plan, which includes a move to a distributed access architecture, virtual cable modem termination system (vCMTS) deployments and a pivot to DOCSIS 4.0 in a portion of its cable footprint.
"ANS will be the fastest growing segment in 2025 with further growth in 2026 as Charter ramps its upgrade initiative," Raymond James analyst Simon Leopold said in a research note issued after CommScope's Q4 call. "We expect trends continue and during 1H25 [as] CommScope benefits from share gains at Comcast at Harmonic's expense for two to three quarters."
Financial snapshot
Treadway was asked to assess the potential exposure CommScope has to tariffs as the US explores using them against Canada and Mexico.
"We're waiting to see what happens with tariffs. In the short term, we're evaluating price increases. And then I would say in the medium term, potentially moving some manufacturing and warehousing," Treadway said.
CommScope "core" revenues in Q4 rose 27% to $1.17 billion year-over-year, but dropped 8% to $4.21 billion for full-year 2024. Notably, CommScope completed a critical debt refinancing during the quarter that gives the company some breathing room, as it faces no maturities until 2027.
Among individual business segments, sales at Connectivity and Cable Solutions (CCS) jumped 36% to $754 million in Q4, driven by cloud and hyperscale data center growth, including generative AI projects.
Core revenues at the Networking, Intelligent Cellular and Security Solutions (NICS) unit rose 13% to $154 million. The result does not include the DAS unit that was recently sold to Amphenol.
Editor's note: The story has been updated with commentary from Raymond James. It has also been adjusted to clarify that CommScope shipped $50 million in DOCSIS 4.0 amplifiers (including but not exclusively FDX amps) in Q4 2024.
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