Broadband providers are seeing delays of more than a year when ordering Internet routers, becoming yet another victim of chip shortages choking global supply chains and adding challenges for millions still working from home.
Carriers have been quoted order times as long as 60 weeks, more than doubling previous waits, said people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private.
Sharp COVID-19 manufacturing shutdowns a year ago were exacerbated by a prolonged surge in demand for better home broadband equipment, said Karsten Gewecke, head of European regional business for Zyxel Communications Corp (合勤), a Taiwan-based router-maker.
Photo: Ann Wang, Retuers
Since January, it has asked customers to order products a year in advance, because the lead time for components such as chips from Broadcom Inc had doubled to a year or more since then, he said.
Zyxel is a major supplier of routers, with customers including Norway’s Telenor ASA and Britain’s Zen Internet.
Adtran, a US network equipment maker picking up market share from China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) in Europe, has also warned customers of supply chain risks and lead-time extensions in the past few months.
It has expanded its warehouse facilities in the UK, more than doubling its inventory and logistics capacity to avoid problems, a spokesman said by e-mail.
No carrier has run out of routers yet, but the supply chain looks strained for the next six months, so it is possible, Gewecke said.
“We have been very close several times,” he said in a video call. “It could still happen.”
Even shipments already en route cannot escape global trade ructions: Last week, Zyxel routers were on and behind the ship that blocked the Suez Canal, Gewecke said.
Broadcom did not immediately respond to requests for comment. About 90 percent of its supply for this year has already been ordered, CEO Hock Tan (陳福陽) said last month.
Zyxel’s problems started more than a year ago when manufacturing in its Wuxi, China, factory shut down for a month due to COVID-19. Since it reopened, supplies have been spotty and shipping costs have spiked as much as 10 times their previous levels as exporters raced to catch up, even vying for space with outbound medical and personal protective equipment.
Since Chinese factories restarted, chipsets have become a global bottleneck, choked by shortages of parts like silicon wafers as well as supply-demand mismatches.
Components for other systems such as memory and power management are also affected, Gewecke said.
“It’s a snowball effect that we’re pushing in front of us, and the situation since then has just become worse and worse and worse,” he said. “When I talk to some of the chipset vendors, some of them tell me that they have something like overbooking of 300 percent of their capacity.”
With semiconductor foundries struggling to allocate scarce capacity, less profitable work gets pushed to the back of the line. Routers command lower margins than smartphones and computers, and then within the world of routers, those destined for less affluent markets like eastern Europe use less sophisticated, lower-margin parts.
In a similar vein, smaller telecoms have been worst hit, while global enterprises have clinched supplies with their buying power.
Some carriers have stockpiled to avoid shortfalls, and some were further insulated by ordering months’ worth of equipment ahead of potential Brexit trade disruptions.
It was late morning and steam was rising from water tanks atop the colorful, but opaque-windowed, “soapland” sex parlors in a historic Tokyo red-light district. Walking through the narrow streets, camera in hand, was Beniko — a former sex worker who is trying to capture the spirit of the area once known as Yoshiwara through photography. “People often talk about this neighborhood having a ‘bad history,’” said Beniko, who goes by her nickname. “But the truth is that through the years people have lived here, made a life here, sometimes struggled to survive. I want to share that reality.” In its mid-17th to
‘MAKE OR BREAK’: Nvidia shares remain down more than 9 percent, but investors are hoping CEO Jensen Huang’s speech can stave off fears that the sales boom is peaking Shares in Nvidia Corp’s Taiwanese suppliers mostly closed higher yesterday on hopes that the US artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer would showcase next-generation technologies at its annual AI conference slated to open later in the day. The GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in California is to feature developers, engineers, researchers, inventors and information technology professionals, and would focus on AI, computer graphics, data science, machine learning and autonomous machines. The event comes at a make-or-break moment for the firm, as it heads into the next few quarters, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) keynote speech today seen as having the ability to
The battle for artificial intelligence supremacy hinges on microchips, but the semiconductor sector that produces them has a dirty secret: It is a major source of chemicals linked to cancer and other health problems. Global chip sales surged more than 19 percent to about US$628 billion last year, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association, which forecasts double-digit growth again this year. That is adding urgency to reducing the effects of “forever chemicals” — which are also used to make firefighting foam, nonstick pans, raincoats and other everyday items — as are regulators in the US and Europe who are beginning to
NEXT GENERATION: The company also showcased automated machines, including a nursing robot called Nurabot, which is to enter service at a Taichung hospital this year Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) expects server revenue to exceed its iPhone revenue within two years, with the possibility of achieving this goal as early as this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said on Tuesday at Nvidia Corp’s annual technology conference in San Jose, California. AI would be the primary focus this year for the company, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), as rapidly advancing AI applications are driving up demand for AI servers, Liu said. The production and shipment of Nvidia’s GB200 chips and the anticipated launch of GB300 chips in the second half of the year would propel
RSS