Customer Premises Equipment or Customer Provided Equipment (CPE) is any equipment that is physically located on the customer’s premises — whether it is a business office or a personal residence and whether it is owned by the customer or the carrier — and is associated to a carrier that provides voice, data, or video services of any kind. In other words, it can be any equipment that connects to a WAN service.
It is a generic term that depends on the context where it is being used. Some examples of CPE are:
- Analog and IP phones
It can either be an analog phone associated with a landline carrier or an IP phone or softphone directly associated with a VoIP carrier, a local PBX system or even to a cloud-based PBX. - PABX or PBX
Any analog or digital PABX or PBX (software) system using the services of a landline carrier, GSM, VoIP, E1/T1. - Routers
- Switches
- Modems
These can range from simple residential models to professional ones, which are installed in business locations to provide fiber optic service, for example.
CPEs can be active devices, such as those mentioned above, or passive, like an ATA, which is basically a telephony adapter that can be associated with a PBX or IP carrier to convert the digital signal into analog and allow the connection of a conventional phone to an IP service.
All items that are shipped together with CPEs, such as cables, power supplies, and accessories, which are required for CPEs to function, including the user manuals, are referred to as CPE Peripherals.
Khomp offers a complete line of CPE products, including: ATAs, such as KAP 208 and KAP 302; a wide range of smart IP phones, such as IPS 200, IPS 212, IPS 300, among others; the EBS and Appliances lines; and the UMG, KMG MS and Kmedia Media Gateways.
The application areas for CPEs include:
- VoIP
- Connected smart home services
- Cable TV
- On demand video services
- Internet and data
- Wireless connectivity
- LTE solutions
- IoT equipment
