CED articles from August 2001

CED archives from August 2001

This summer's hottest show.(Comcast Cable Communications Inc. plans acquisition of AT and T Broadband L.L.C.)(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... In the latest case of life imitating art, Comcast's play to purchase AT&T Broadband is shaping up to be more compelling, surprising and intrigue-filled than most of the fare that s broadcast on primetime television every night. Lead...

AT&T board rejects Comcast bid.(Comcast Corp. acquisition rejected by AT and T Broadband L.L.C.)(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... Late last month, AT&T's board of directors rejected an offer by rival Comcast to buy its broadband cable business for less than half the amount AT&T spent to acquire the systems. Comcast made public an all-stock offer, described as a "bear...

Lucent to supply optical network system for TyCom.(Lucent Technologies)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
August 1, 2001... Lucent Technologies will supply long-haul optical network equipment and services for Morristown, N.J.-based TyCom Ltd., in a one-year $90 million agreement. The agreement includes deployment of the Lucent WaveStar OLS 1.6T optical networking...

Fiber-to-the-Home Council formed.(Alcatel, Corning Inc. and Optical Solutions)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... Alcatel, Corning Inc. and Optical Solutions are forming a Fiber-to-the-Home Council. The purpose of the group is to provide education and to promote and accelerate the deployment of fiber-to-the-home systems in North America. Membership will be...

AT&T and Excite@Home announce new inter-backbone SLA.(service level agreement)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... AT&T and Excite@Home are partnering for a joint service level agreement (SLA) for cross-network performance for their high-speed, dedicated Internet access services. The new SLA provides managed "multi-homed" business customers with...

Real winner revealed.(SCTE's Cable-Tec Games)(Brief Article)(Correction Notice)
August 1, 2001... Joel Hutchings of Cox Communications, Oklahoma City, Okla. was the third-place overall winner in the SCTE's Cable-Tec Games held in May in Orlando. Todd Lubbers of AT&T, Broadband, Laramie, Wyo. was erroneously Listed as the third-place overall...

C-COR.net to purchase ADC cable assets.(ADC Telecommunications Inc.)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... C-COR.net will purchase certain assets of ADC Telecommunications' cable product portfolio for $52 million and the assumption of certain liabilities. The assets being purchased include those from ADC's Broadband Communications division, located...

Non-line-of-sight wireless systems coming into view.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... PipingHot Networks (PHN) recently completed its first live field trials of the company's Broadband Wireless Internet Forum (BWIF) compliant non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless 3.5 GHz system, using open standard technologies. Additionally,...

Ucentric partners with AP Engines and Ellacoya for home networking services.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... Ucentric Systems is partnering with AP Engines and Ellacoya Networks to enable broadband service providers (BSPs) to tap into new revenue streams from home networking services. Through the alliances with AP Engines and Ellacoya Networks,...

Optical access market to top $2B in 2005.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
August 1, 2001... First-mile connections to multi-tenant office buildings will emerge as a strong growth area, with fiber-connected facilities more than doubling in 2005, according to a study. The industry's services sector will reach $900 million in that time....

OpenTV and BigBand team to provide bandwidth-efficient iTV content.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
August 1, 2001... BigBand Networks and OpenTV are partnering to create a strategic technology. integration and cooperative marketing agreement to provide cable operators with an integrated, cost-effective solution to deliver interactive TV content. Using...

Anadigics expands broadband portfolio with reverse path amplifier for cable TV.(ARA2005)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2001... Anadigics has introduced the ARA2005, a new gallium arsenide (GaAs) cable TV reverse amplifier that provides the reverse path amplifications and output level control functions necessary in various two-way cane TV system designs. The ARA2005 has...

Bandwidth9 partners with Corning to deliver superior signal quality.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... Bandwidth9 is partnering with Corning Inc. to explore combined solutions that reduce costs and magnify deployment flexibility for metro optical carriers. The solutions are based on Corning MetroCor optical fiber and Bandwidth9's MetroFlex...

U.S. cable revenues to nearly double over next five years.("U.S. Cable Television Infrastructure: CATV Equipment Markets and System Trends," report)(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)(Statistical Data Included)
August 1, 2001... U.S. cable operator gross revenues will rise from $35 billion in 2000 to more than $60 billion in 2006, says a new report from Allied Business Intelligence (ABI). A significant part of the expanded revenue base will be from new services. ...

Clear, Redback deliver end-to-end optical management.(Clear software)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... Clear, a global supplier of optical, broadband and digital network management software, is partnering with Redback Networks to jointly offer customers enhanced end-to-end fault, performance and service level management capabilities in...

Navic Networks' solution helps manage mixed vendor set-tops.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2001... Navic Networks is introducing version 2.3 of its Hypergate system software. The Hypergate 2.3 is the software backbone behind Navic's Set-top Data Services (SDS), which are designed to overlay the existing cable or satellite network. The...

One-third of Internet users have broadband access, study says.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
August 1, 2001... Thirty-one percent of U.S. Internet users have broadband access at home, work or school, according to a study recently released by Arbitron Inc. and Coleman. The study, "BroadbandRevolution 2: The Media World of Speedies," found that 64...

Limited consumer interest in new services to challenge BSPs.(broadband service provider)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
August 1, 2001... As new broadband access technologies begin to compete with DSL and cable for the residential market, and as consumers are offered greater choice in selecting a broadband provider, the battle for the broadband consumer will become increasingly...

Mixed Signals Technologies working to integrate TiVo technology into product line.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... Mixed Signals Technologies and TiVo Inc. are partnering to integrate TiVo's Ipreview technology into Mixed Signals' ITV Networking Solutions product line. Under the terms of the agreement, Mixed Signals' ITVauto interactive television...

letters.
August 1, 2001... Nuts and bolts of iTV debated To the Editor: I must commend Ms. Leslie Ellis on her article "All souped up, and no place to go" in the July issue. It is a timely article, and provides good information on the state of digital set-tops...

Locking Out.
August 1, 2001... Signal Theft Theft of cable signals has plagued the industry for years. It's gotten so big that it reportedly accounts for at least $6.5 billion in lost revenue for the industry. But now, as operators transition from an all-analog...

Trying to lock the door on privacy.
August 1, 2001... Even with the advent of the digital era, signal piracy stands to plague the cable industry for a long, long time. Here's what vendors and operators are doing to protect their technological soft spots. Beating video pirates in the analog...

A DIRTY LITTLE SECRET.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... The cable industry has been reluctant to acknowledge the magnitude of its signal theft problem, preferring to keep its secret crammed into a back closet. One little-used but effective means of combating theft, and bringing it into the light, is...

Isolating field fiber problems using an OTDR.(Optical Time Domain Reflectometer)(Statistical Data Included)
August 1, 2001... Data interpretation key to success in testing A recent field visit confirmed the usefulness of an OTDR in the determination of installation issues, but also pointed out the importance of a good understanding of the principles involved to...

Inside Time Warner Cable's ISA.
August 1, 2001... Ambitious project seeks to unify ITV back office forces There is an unresolved puzzle of physics, known variously as the "Grand Unification Theory" and the "theory of everything," which seeks synthesis of the three forces of nature:...

Can Ethernet compete with Sonet?
August 1, 2001... Matching the transport technology to the service offerings Many articles have been written on the fundamental driving forces to deploy Gigabit Ethernet instead of Sonet in metropolitan networks for network service providers. These articles...

Security issues blanket operators' business markets.
August 1, 2001... MSOs try to balance costs with customer demands Securing the complex, scalable networks that were designed to serve the burgeoning small- to mid-size business market is quickly moving beyond the basic security stage into the tightly...

Hockey stick reality.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... There are a number of frequently used cliches in common discussions concerning advanced technology and its acceptance by the marketplace, Examples include "a window of opportunity," and "hockey stick growth curve." Sometimes, a little thought...

SCTE offers standards help online.(Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... EXTON, Pa--The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) has constructed a new section of its Web site (www.scte.org) to provide cable telecommunications standards information and resources for organizations and individuals. The new...

Generac Power sets up scholarship fund.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... WAUKESHA, Wis.--Generac Power Systems Inc. has established a new scholarship fund at the Milwaukee School of Engineering to honor its Executive Vice President, Gerald Ruehlow, who has worked at the company since 1975 in a variety of engineering...

C-COR.net wins contract in Indonesia.(C-COR.net Corp.)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
August 1, 2001... STATE COLLEGE, Pa.--C-COR.net has won a contract to supply fiber optics, amplifiers, and a network management system in Indonesia. The company is part of a successful consortium bid to develop a broadband network in Indonesia for Pt. Indosat...

S-A picks Tulsat as distributor of TX network gear.(Scientific-Atlanta Inc.)(Tulsat Inc.)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... BROKEN ARROW, Okla.--Tulsat Inc. has announced a formal agreement that makes the company a distributor for Scientific-Atlanta headend and taps and passives products. In addition, the company has been selected as S-A's first authorized outlet...

Convergys, Siebel form customer care alliance.(Convergys Corp.)(Siebel Systems Inc.)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... CINCINNATI--Convergys Corp. and Siebel Systems Inc. have formed a strategic alliance to integrate Convergys' contact center capabilities, billing solutions, and operational expertise with Siebel Systems' eBusiness applications software. ...

Fiber optic cable blower.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2001... MANKATO, Minn.--Condux International Inc. has introduced its new LW Fiber Optic Cable Blower, a compact and portable unit that installs fiber optic cable into innerduct at speeds approaching 300 feet per minute. Typical installation distances...

Communications tool kit.(Jensen Tools Inc.)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2001... PHOENIX, Ariz.--Jensen Tools Inc. has introduced its JTK-53, a tool kit for the installation and maintenance of communications equipment. It allows the user to service a variety of voice and data equipment, including data networks and phone...

Optical alarm unit.(Norscan)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2001... CONOVER, N.C.--Norscan has introduced its optical monitoring system, the 4200 OAU (Optical Alarm Unit). Useful during emergency restoration, the unit has the capability to immediately report the location of fiber cuts. A single 4200 is capable...

Reverse path upgrades.(dB-tronics)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2001... SPARTANBURG, S.C.--dB-tronics has introduced a new line of reverse path upgrades, including: the System Amp Reverse Upgrade (S-A SA II 30/46 to 40/51); Line Extender Reverse Upgrade (S-A LE I and LE II 30/46 to 40/51); and Trunk and Bridger...

Digital Closet.(TII Network Technologies)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2001... COPIAGUE, N.Y.--TII Network Technologies has introduced Digital Closet, a technology portal, network interface and surge protection solution designed for the existing home market. The product accesses technology developed by the Home Phoneline...

Integrated transverter for broadband wireless.(Andrew Corp.)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2001... ORLAND PARK, Ill.--Andrew Corp. has introduced a new 3.5 GHz frequency band version of its UltraFlex integrated transverter for broadband wireless systems. The two-way transverter unit can be used with commercially available modem platforms to...

DFB laser source modules.(Agilent Technologies Inc.)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2001... PALO ALTO, Calif.--Agilent Technologies Inc. has launched its 81663A family of high-power (+13 dBm) DFB laser source modules for the L-Band. The new modules provide a flexible, multi-channel setup to test optical equipment in the L-Band. The...

Duct entry seals.(Simplex Duct Entry Seals from Tyco Electronics/Jackmoon)(Company Business and Marketing)(Product Information)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2001... CITY OF INDUSTRY, Calif.--Tyco Electronics/Jackmoon has introduced new Simplex Duct Entry Seals, which provide a means to seal around pipes in a variety of environments. The seals have applications in bringing pipe, conduit or duct through...

HDTV demodulator.(8-VSB Demodulator, Model 6237 from)(Scientific-Atlanta Inc.)(Company Business and Marketing)(Product Information)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2001... ATLANTA--Scientific-Atlanta Inc. has announced that ks new demodulator product, the 8-VSB Demodulator, Model 6237, is currently available. The unit allows network operators to demodulate off-air 8-VSB (HDTV) broadcasts so that they can be...

Field service software.(etrace 2.0 from Gearworks)(Company Business and Marketing)(Product Information)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2001... NEW YORK--Gearworks has released etrace 2.0, a mobile communications tracking and communications software platform for the field service industry. Using the new software, field service workers can now transmit GPS-based tracking information,...

Cable modem.(DOCSIS cable modem from U.S. Robotics)(Company Business and Marketing)(Product Information)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2001... SCHAUMBURG, Ill.--U.S. Robotics has introduced a cable modem for service providers seeking "a well-recognized modem brand with extensive retail presence." The DOCSIS cable modem has received Data-Over-Cable Service Interface Specification 1.0...

Fiber optic test equipment.(Company Business and Marketing)(Product Information)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2001... SPAIN--Promax Electronica S.A. has introduced a new product line of fiber optic test equipment that complements its range of cable television test equipment. The Prolite family has been developed for installation and maintenance of fiber optic...

Predictive bandwidth allocation.(CableLogics modem usage monitoring software from ChanneLogics)(Company Business and Marketing)(Product Information)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2001... ATLANTA--ChanneLogics has released its new software product--CableLogics--which addresses the data-over-cable arena. The product collects information on a per-modem basis, monitors individual usage patterns, uses the usage pattern data to...

Fiber management.(Fiber Routing Control (FRC) system from)(Sumitomo Electric Lightwave)(Company Business and Marketing)(Product Information)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2001... RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.--Sumitomo Electric Lightwave has launched its Fiber Routing Control (FRC) system and related products for fiber management and distribution. The patented FRC system features central waterfall slots in rack-mounted,...

Getting a fix on fixed wireless.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)
August 1, 2001... Fixed wireless entrepreneurs have not been as successful in this country as they have elsewhere. Some have tried to compete against the local wireline phone companies for voice and data. Most have focused on the broadband Internet access...

Awash in bad news?(Brief Article)(Editorial)
August 1, 2001... AS THE CED EDITORIAL TEAM and I deliberated over what this month's InDepth cover and interior illustrations should be, it didn't take long before we saw tremendous parallels between the plight that today's small and independent network...

SELF reliance.
August 1, 2001... Small operators find that ingenuity and aggresive service offerings are critical to their very survival Size doesn't always matter. In the case of small cable operators, the fact that they have fewer subscribers than larger MSOs doesn't...

SEARCHING FOR BURIED TREASURE.
August 1, 2001... IN THE CURRENT UNCERTAIN ECONOMIC CLIMATE, SMALL CABLE OPERATORS HAVE TO BE MORE TENACIOUS THAN EVER TO FIND THE TRAIL OF FRESH CAPITAL In today's stalled economy, banks are more conservative when it comes to financing loans, venture...

CUTTING A NEW PATH.
August 1, 2001... SMALL OPERATORS FIND AN INEXPENSIVE WAY TO IMPLEMENT DIGITAL HEADENDS Borrowing a page out of the successful HITS (Headend In The Sky) business plan, small cable operators have finally hit upon the right combination of satellite-delivered...

VOD COMING ASHORE IN A SMALL CITY NEAR YOU?(video-on-demand)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
August 1, 2001... The trickle-down theory of technology could turn into a VOD flood for small/medium-sized operators The old school of thought suggests that it takes time for new technologies to "trickle down" into small systems that serve rural areas of...

REGULATORY UNDERTOW.(digital must-carry regulation)
August 1, 2001... The FCC has saved the cable industry from drowning in digital must-carry regulations... at least, for now. But count on broadcasters to keep churning up the waters. The FCC's "digital must-carry" decision was adopted on January 18, 2001....

IS HIGH-SPEED HIGH RISK?(Industry Overview)
August 1, 2001... With ISP Channel's sinking and HSA sailing away from one-way service, operators get creative when it comes to finding lifelines for high-speed access When high-speed cable modem service finally became reality several years ago, many...

The Rural Telecom Consumer & Broadband.(telecommunication)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
August 1, 2001... Higher Consumer Loyalty One Reason to Market When the 1996 Telecom Act was passed, Congress was explicit that telecom service in rural areas be comparable to what was available in urban areas, including access to advanced telecommunications...