Customer premises equipment (CPE) is telephone or other service provider equipment that is located on the customer's premises (physical location) rather than on the provider's premises or in between. Telephone handsets, cable TV set-top boxes, and Digital Subscriber Line routers are examples. Historically, this term referred to equipment placed at the customer's end of the telephone line and usually owned by the telephone company. Today, almost any end-user equipment can be called customer premise equipment and it can be owned by the customer or by the provider.
Contributor(s): John Whipple
This was last updated in July 2000