According to a recent report, residential gateways are taking on added importance when it comes to the delivery of multi-screen video in subscribers’ homes.

The report by Infonetics Research also said that the number of operators offering home automation services via residential gateways would grow to 44 percent by next year.

“Operators continue to morph their fixed broadband network strategies to focus not only on the size of the connection to the subscriber, but also on the services and revenue these broadband connections can deliver. Residential gateways are critical to ensuring the successful delivery of these services within the home, particularly video services,” said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband access and pay TV at Infonetics Research. “Our recent survey shows the percentage of operators offering multi-screen video (wireless delivery of video to mobile phones, PCs, and tablets) using a residential gateway is growing quickly, from just 6 percent today to 50 percent by 2014. 

“They’re looking to differentiate basic pay TV services and keep customers from moving to competitors or, increasingly, cutting the cord entirely.”

Broadband data, IPTV, Wi-Fi hotspot access, and VoIP were the main services and applications operator respondents were offering using a residential gateway

Currently, well over half of the respondents were using copper Ethernet to deliver broadband services while Huawei and ZTE were perceived as the top residential vendors by over a third of the survey respondents