CED articles from April 2002

CED archives from April 2002

No backbone, no brain? (in perspective).(Billy Tauzin refuses to testify in front of United States Senate)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... I can't help but wonder why U.S. House of Representatives Commerce Committee chairman Billy Tauzin, who was sufficiently motivated to draft and sponsor broadband legislation that would unshackle the giant telcos, declined an opportunity to...

CableLabs serves up metadata in VOD spec. (upfront Latest News And Insight).(video-on-demand specifications)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... In a move that could play a huge role in forthcoming "everything" on-demand services, CableLabs has completed the first set of specifications related to handling descriptive data--also known as metadata--associated with on-demand video...

Broadband reaching the mainstream. (upfront Latest News And Insight).(broadband usage versus narrowband usage)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... In what could be considered a watershed event, broadband surfing in January 2002 accounted for more than half of all time spent on the Internet, reported Nielsen//NetRatings. That marked the first time that broadband usage outpaced narrowband...

CSG Systems International. (upfront Latest News And Insight).(acquires Lucent Technologies' billing and customer care assets)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Expanding its telecommunications billing footprint, Denver-based CSG Systems International, has closed its deal to acquire the billing and customer care assets of Lucent Technologies for roughly $260 million. Lucent originally obtained...

MSNBC taps Net Insight gear for video back-haul. (upfront Latest News And Insight).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Following a trial launched last October, MSNBC has inked a deal with Net Insight's domestic partner, Qmedia, to access capacity on a bi-directional back-haul video network that links the programmer's presence in Washington, D.C. and New York....

Wink gets game. (upfront Latest News And Insight).(Wink Communications signs deal with Two Way TV Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Wink Communications said it will develop and offer interactive television games via an affiliation deal with Two Way TV Inc. Wink added that it will distribute the games through existing partnerships with TV operators. The initial...

EarthLink cuts out the wait with cable home network service. (upfront Latest News And Insight).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Complementing a similar strategy for its DSL service, EarthLink said it has started to offer a home networking service bundle to its cable modem ISP customers. EarthLink's home networking service and gateway hardware will leverage both...

Comcast opens high-speed doors to United Online. (upfront Latest News And Insight).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Ushering in its own open access strategy, Comcast Corp. inked a non-exclusive deal with United Online Inc. to offer multiple ISPs in the MSO's cable modem markets. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The agreement gives United Online,...

Study: high-speed subs ripe for up-sell. (upfront Latest News And Insight).(broadband subscriber research)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... Broadband subscribers are more apt to be upsold for "core" services during a broadband qualification or installation, revealed a new study from Mindwave Research and BroadJump Inc. The study, which polled 1,046 randomly selected and...

Wave7 Optics B-round nets $23 M. (upfront Latest News And Insight).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Fiber-to-the-home and business equipment vendor Wave7 Optics said it raised $23 million in a second round of funding led by Advanced Technology. New investors included Mellon Ventures and Armada Ventures. Founding investors Morgenthaler and...

Cable 2002 to focus on tech's cutting edge. (upfront Latest News And Insight).
April 1, 2002... Next month's National Show will place a heavy focus on cable and other telecommunications technologies. Cable 2002 will feature topics ranging from advanced optical and IP network architecture, traffic/bandwidth management, IP streaming...

Shaw, Rogers target dial-up users. (upfront Latest News And Insight).(Rogers Cable Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. offer "Internet Lite" services)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... In an attempt to convert dial-up users to faster broadband connections and to lure entry-level Internet users, Canadian MSOs Rogers Cable Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. are offering "Internet Lite" services. Shaw has launched the service,...

InterVideo turns PCs into DVRs. (upfront Latest News And Insight).(digital video recorder software)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... No longer is the television the only domain of digital video recording technology and functionality. Fremont, Calif.-based InterVideo is adding DVR functions to PCs via WinDVR, a software bundle that allows users to pause, rewind and...

On-demand takes center stage at CTAM. (upfront Latest News And Insight).(video-on-demand; Cable Television)(Administration and Marketing Society)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Video-on-demand and subscription-VOD were hot topics at last month's CTAM Digital Conference in Los Angeles, as operators and programmers explained how such services could be marketed to generate revenue and bust digital churn. Comcast...

Changes afoot at Moxi. (upfront Latest News And Insight).(Moxi Digital Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Despite a splashy coming-out party at January's Consumer Electronics Show, apparently not all sailing is smooth at Moxi Digital Inc. For starters, Steve Perlman, former co-founder of WebTV, stepped down as Moxi's CEO to become vice...

Ricochet redux. (upfront Latest News And Insight).(Richochet Networks launches trial of high-speed, wireless Internet access network service)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Rising like a Phoenix from the ashes, Ricochet Networks has launched a technical trial of its high-speed, wireless Internet access network in Denver. Aerie Networks acquired Ricochet Networks from bankrupt Metricom Inc. for $8.25 million. ...

Ucentric preps for 2002 deployments. (upfront Latest News And Insight).(Ucentric Systems)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Digital home entertainment startup Ucentric Systems said it has completed its initial phase of service operator trials, and is preparing a third-generation of its software platform for cable deployments in the second half of this year. ...

Philips ups the middleware ante with MHP. (upfront Latest News And Insight).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... In a move that could pit Philips in the highly competitive middleware market, Philips Softworks has teamed with silicon vendor STMicroelectronics to develop "solutions" for applying Multimedia Home Platform (MHP) technology in set-top boxes and...

VT Media hopes to make hay on sub-$150 Linux-based set-top. (upfront Latest News And Insight).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2002... VT Media Technologies has launched a new Linux-based set-top, the VT100, claiming the unit price on the box will be less than $150 in "OEM quantities." Code-named "The Edge," VT Media's box leverages a Linux-based operating system to...

Intertainer bows on-demand content tool. (upfront Latest News And Insight).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Intertainer has launched Demand E.S.P., a patent-pending platform designed to help broadband operators and content owners manage, program. distribute and track on-demand content. Intertainer's VOD content tool is comprised of seven modules:...

Com21 propels upstream plans with Propane. (upfront Latest News And Insight).(Broadcom Corp's Propane accelerator software)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Aiming to boost cable's upstream capacity, Com21 Inc. said it has become the first vendor to feature Broadcom Corp.'s Propane accelerator software for DOCSIS and EuroDOCSIS systems. For starters, Com21 will use Propane in its recently...

Sony embarks on PS2 broadband service. (upfront Latest News And Insight).(Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)
April 1, 2002... Shifting its focus beyond off-the-shelf gaming tit[es for the PlayStation2, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. said it will take advantage of the console's high-speed capabilities with a new broadband, multiplayer service. Set to launch this...

PCT `taps' S-A. (upfront Latest News And Insight). (PCT International's contract with Scientific-Atlanta).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... PCT International will soon manufacture its own line of taps following a licensing agreement with Scientific-Atlanta. Financial terms were not disclosed. PCT, a cable technology subsidiary of Andes Industries, will employ S-A's patented...

The big switch. (Letters To The Editor).
April 1, 2002... I cried when I read your article about AT&T and project Redwood (see "The six-day network switch," page 58, CED Feb. 2002). It was so liberating. I work for AT&T in Fife, Wash., and I am so shocked at the reality of the article that I cannot...

Re: the big switch. (Letters To The Editor).
April 1, 2002... Excellent, excellent article. Thanks for your fact-finding spree, and thanks for bringing to light how AT&T called @Home's hand. I thought it all along, but most people just don't get it. I read a reply on the "DSL Reports" bulletin board, and...

Cox@home conversion. (Letters To The Editor).
April 1, 2002... After reading the article in CED, I thought you might be interested in my thoughts on the cox@home conversion, their customer support, and the responses that I have received from them. I accomplished my cable conversion within 48 hours of...

Merger in the sky? (Letters To The Editor).
April 1, 2002... To Jeffrey Krauss: I read with great interest your "Capital Currents" column on page 98 of the Feb. 2002 issue of CED magazine. Your points about the technical problems with the DirecTV/Echostar merger are described very well. If local...

Fill 'er up! Fixed wireless satellite VDSL. (Alternative Broadband Technologies).(fixed wireless, satellite service technologies and VDSL (Very high bit rate Digital Subscriber Line))(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... At the broadband service station, cable and DSL aren't the only digital grease monkeys pumping services by the gallon. VDSL (Very high bit rate Digital Subscriber Line), fixed wireless and satellite service technologies and service providers...

Movin' on up: with a new standard in place and a new generation of products rolling out, the broadband fixed wireless industry is climbing out of the hole of hype that nearly buried it. (Alternative Broadband Technologies).
April 1, 2002... (Editor's note: During the 2002 Broadband Wireless World Forum this past February, there was a lot of activity and announcements from both established and start-up vendor companies touting their next-generation products, After having gone...

Not all systems `go' for satellite broadband: after some early, high-flying ideas, most advanced broadband satellite services are in a holding pattern or changing course--and existing Ku-band services are struggling to find a large audience. (Alternative Broadband Technologies).
April 1, 2002... If all had gone according to plan, hundreds of advanced broadband satellites should have been orbiting the Earth by now, offering affordable, ultra-fast broadband services to consumers and businesses around the world. Instead, the economy...

Writing the business case for VDSL: independent telcos are among the first to embrace VDSL as a competitive weapon. (Alternative Broadband Technologies).
April 1, 2002... The business appeal of VDSL (Very high bit rate Digital Subscriber Line) technology as a viable new source of revenue for select ILECs, smaller independent telcos and a few large RBOCs is pushing the business case for video-over-DSL beyond the...

Are overbuilders keeping pace? Whether competitive cablecos have a place in the broadband services market is a question that can only be answered on a region-by-region basis.(Column)
April 1, 2002... In the midst of the telecommunications boom, a few cable TV visionaries saw an opportunity to ride the venture capital crest by securing funding to compete head-to-head with the industry's incumbent establishment. Lofty business plans in hand,...

Tuning up your network: new tunable lasers promise cost savings, network efficiencies. (Fiberline Fiber Optic Technology).
April 1, 2002... Nothing is more basic to cable TV than tuning. Video channel tuning up and down the TV dial is a common experience for millions of cable subscribers who blissfully surf each night through wave after wave of cable TV programming. But in the...

Taking broadband to businesses: using fixed wireless systems to extend HFC networks. (Networking Advanced Networking Technology).
April 1, 2002... One of the greatest assets held by cable operators who are providing high-speed data services is the massive-bandwidth fiber network that penetrates deep into residential neighborhoods and is then extended into residences by use of low-cost...

Hey, big spender ... is cable's big spend on plant rebuilds & upgrades really ending? (Broadband Business Aand News Perspective).(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... Like graduates thumbing through their first student loan payment booklets, sometimes, it doesn't seem possible to see the end of a huge financial obligation. The same is true of the cable industry's decade of big spending on plant rebuilds...

Presume competence. (Ciciora's Corner).(Column)
April 1, 2002... Recently, my daughter had her first child. When she called to say she was going into the hospital, we packed the car and drove to be there a few hours after the baby was born. Because of a complication, the baby was in the intensive care unit...

Get the low-down on Cable-Tec.
April 1, 2002... EXTON, Pa.--Industry professionals can access the latest information about the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers' (SCTE) Cable-Tec Expo and Annual Engineering Conference online at expo.scte.org. The annual gathering is set for June...

Oldcastle shows Olympic mettle.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... SALT LAKE CITY, Utah--Oldcastle Communications was a stealth participant in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, as the company provided Qwest with equipment shelters. Oldcastle completed 12 buildings that were produced in Chandler,...

Time Mfg. adds new distributor.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... WACO, Texas--Time Manufacturing Co. has named a new distributor for Texas, New Mexico, and Louisiana-Versalift Southwest. The company is a newly-formed distributorship based in Waco, Texas, and will be handling all aspects of sales, parts,...

C-COR.net wins Quality Award.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... STATE COLLEGE, Pa.--C-COR.net has earned the Central Pennsylvania Quality Award at the "Significant Achievement" level. The Quality Award is jointly sponsored by the Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County, Pa., and The Centre Daily...

Bomar signs pact with Richardson.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... LEDGEWOOD, N.J.--Bomar Interconnect Products Inc. has signed a worldwide distributor agreement with Richardson Electronics. Under the terms of the agreement, Bomar's line of broadcast coaxial and RF interconnect products will be represented...

N2 Broadband secures $10M in funding.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... ATLANTA--N2 Broadband, a provider of asset distribution and management solutions for the digital cable TV industry, has secured financing totaling $10 million. The investment was led by Highland Capital Partners with follow-on participation...

Gigabit Ethernet module.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... LAKE OSWEGO, Ore.--Video-Tele.com Inc., a Tektronix company, has announced that its flagship Digital Headend (DHE) solution, the Astria content processor, supports switched Gigabit Ethernet (GigE). The Astria platform's new GigE module delivers...

All-In-One tool. (Tools).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... CHESTER, Conn.--Cable Prep, a Ben Hughes Communication Products Company, has added the All-In-One (AIO) tool to its product line. In one smooth operation, the tool strips back the jacket, cores the dielectric, strips back the outer conductor,...

Multiplexer.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2002... UPPER SADDLE RIVER, N.J.--Ikusi Telecommunications has introduced a mini-Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (mini-DSLAM) that offers user-transparent, high-speed Internet access for as few as eight users. Designed for Multi-Tenant...

Bandpass filter.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2002... EAST SYRACUSE, N.Y.--Microwave Filter Co. has introduced the model 14584 single channel bandpass filter, which passes single channel signals while providing rejection to adjacent channels and is used in cable TV, LAN, MDU, and network...

Bundled cable. (Siemon Co.'s HomeNet II cable product).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2002... WATERTOWN, Conn.--The Siemon Company has added the HomeNet II bundled cable to its Home Cabling System product line. HomeNet II is a bundled cable that combines two category 5e four-pair UTP cables and two RG6 Quad Shield coax cables. The...

WLAN amplifier.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... HAVERHILL, Mass.--Designed for 3.5 GHz fixed wireless applications, Alpha Industries' new AL108-338 packaged GaAs PHEMT switchable-gain LNA is a leadless, surface-mount QFN-16, 4 x 4 mm, MMIC package that yields low noise, good 50 Ohm match,...

Ethernet protection switching.(Occam Networks Inc. introduces Ethernet Protection Switching)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... SANTA BARBARA, Calif.--Occam Networks Inc. has introduced Ethernet Protection Switching (EPS), a technology it developed that gives Ethernet the resiliency of Sonet networks with a 50 msec fail-over to a backup path in case of link or node...

Polarization maintaining patchcords.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2002... SOMERSWORTH, N.H.--EigenLight Corp. has announced premium polarization maintaining patchcords with FC and FC/APC connectors for 1280 nm to 1620 nm wavelength applications. Specifications include typical extinction ratios of 30 dB, typical...

Wireless connectivity.(DragonWave launches AirPair wireless Ethernet devices)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2002... ANAHEIM, Calif.--DragonWave has launched AirPair, a family of products that delivers wireless Ethernet services from 50 Mbps to 100 Mbps, connecting buildings up to 10 miles apart using licensed and unlicensed bands. With AirPair's...

MPEG-2 decoder.(from Moonlight)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2002... TEL AVIV, Israel--Moonlight has announced new capabilities for its MPEG-2 Decoder version 1.35. The real-time decoder provides high-resolution, full quality decoding, optimized for efficient CPU usage, according to the company. Capabilities...

Optical wireless system.(fSONA)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... VANCOUVER, Canada--fSONA has announced that its SONAbeam 155-S, the latest in its family of free-space optical wireless systems, is now commercially available. The first in a series of products optimized for high availability links under 2,500...

Single fiber bi-directional modules.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2002... TARZANA, Calif.--Zonu has introduced its new series of Single Fiber Bi-Directional modules (patent pending), which are based on a proprietary micro-optics design and reduce the cost of modules connecting fiber optic to PC boards as compared to...

Thermal wire strippers.(Eraser Company's Handheld MH10 Thermal Wire Stripper)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2002... SYRACUSE, N.Y.--The Eraser Company has announced its Handheld MH10 Thermal Wire Stripper, which strips thermoplastic insulation from solid and stranded wires between 12 and 43 AWG (2.06-0.056 mm0) without damage to conductors. The heating...

Cart organizer.(Paktek Inc.'s SupplyCaddie)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2002... TACOMA, Wash.--PAKTEK Inc. has introduced its SupplyCaddie, a new cart organizer. The organizer features a universal attachment system which enables the SupplyCaddie to fit most sizes of cart handles. In addition, five attachment points hold it...

Tunable laser subsystem.(Bandwidth9's MetroFlex G2 Series Tunable Optical Transmitter)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 1, 2002... FREMONT, Calif.--Bandwidth9 has announced its new MetroFlex G2 Series Tunable Optical Transmitter for metro optical network wavelength applications. The G2 series provides a transmitter solution for remote wavelength configuration and sparing...

Broadband policy changes? (capital currents).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... There were two major Washington events in February 2002 that may produce big changes in broadband policy. First, the "Tauzin-Dingell bill" (H.R. 1542) passed the House of Representatives, but its fate in the Senate is uncertain because of...

Playing scared. (point of entry).(how digital downloads will affect the movie industry)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... IT'S PROBABLY TOO EARLY TO tell what the extent of the damage could be, but cable operators and even the DBS folks might have cause for concern about the effect that streaming and digital downloads of Hollywood movies might have on their...

Eluding the gatekeeper: an impressive library of digitized video-ranging from TV classics to new feature-length films-is available over the Internet. How serious of a threat does that present to cable's existing VOD and PPV revenue models? (Eluding the gatekeeper).(Internet video-on-demand)
April 1, 2002... Sidestepping the content gatekeeper isn't a difficult proposition anymore, thanks to broadband connections and a growing slate of packaged, digitized video available via the Internet. Instead of ordering pay-per-view and video-on-demand...

IP streaming running hot & cold ... for now; broadband service providers have just started to tap the potential of IP streaming. While it may be a while before the cash starts flowing, a growing number of industry professionals believe streaming IP video to PCs and TVs will eventually create a flood of new service revenues.
April 1, 2002... It seems whenever broadband industry professionals gather, as talk turns to the future, sooner or later, IP (Internet Protocol) enters the conversation. As the omnipresent Internet continues to saturate modern society down to its very roots,...

DRM: the guardian and protector of digital media; digital rights management promises to make the 'Net safe for digital content distribution, while also expanding consumer choice in delivery devices. (Digital rights management).(digital rights management)
April 1, 2002... The brave, new world of digital media over the Internet is entering its second generation, with content owners learning the harsh lessons of outlaw distribution that characterized the first wave. The major lesson learned is that a powerful...

Peering into the future of content delivery. (The peer-to-peer evolution).
April 1, 2002... Something good may still come out of the chaos created when file-sharing service Napster was unleashed on the Internet world. No, not free music for everybody. More like a productive application of the innovative peer-to-peer architecture...

Clash of the codecs: proprietary streaming codecs may have won the PC battle, but standards-based platforms are sharpening their steel for an emerging turf war to be fought on many fronts.
April 1, 2002... In the battle for streaming media supremacy, the lion's share of the booty has gone to market leaders Microsoft Corp. and RealNetworks Inc. At the same time, however, a new class of standards-based combatants has emerged in an attempt to share...

CED Orbital Arc Chart.
April 1, 2002... Reasonable pricing, priceless reasoning At DAWNco, when it comes to state-of-the-art satellite communications, it all makes perfect sense. Our knowledgeable technical sales staff has the expertise to tailor solutions for your specific...