With its largest cable clients, Comcast and Charter, getting into the wireless business, Arris is exploring its entry, too.
“As we continue to grow, we believe that it’s possible that we could get into adjacent markets,” said Arris CFO David Potts, speaking at a Needham investor event this morning. “As an example, wireless … what happens in wireless, should we be more involved in that?"
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Potts’ broad and somewhat vague comments come at an auspicious time for the top cable-industry network and CPE technology vendor, which reported a 75% spike in third-quarter net income back in October.
Potts was particularly bullish about Arris’ network and cloud business, which produced 31% of Arris’ revenue through the third quarter at nearly $1.6 billion, but provided profits on par with the company’s CPE division, which yielded revenue of nearly $3.5 billion through the first three quarters of 2016.
“We’re in the midst of upgrade cycle that is really quite big as our clients re-architect their networks,” Potts said.
Arris anticipated quick uptake of the second generation of line cards to the Arris E6000 converged edge router, as cable operator clients continue to upgrade their networks to DOCSIS 3.1. This upgrade will also lift the CPE division.
“DOCSIS 3.1 is where they want to go, 3.1, and having that service inside the home is where they want to go,” he added.
Potts made his comments a year and a week after Arris closed its acquisition of Pace.
“We continue to see some of the supply chain issues we’re trying to get through, but I’d like to think the Pace deal is behind us. We’re onto the next thing,” he said.