CED articles from December 2000

CED archives from December 2000

Doing my best Jeane Dixon.(trends in 2001)(Brief Article)(Column)
December 1, 2000... This time last year, in this space, I cast a deeply sarcastic eye on the events surrounding the cable industry. I then made a humorous (I hope) attempt to predict the major events of 2000. In that commentary, the goal was to look at current...

Free Space Optics technology poised for growth.(report published)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Free Space Optics, an emerging technology that transports data from point-to-point and multipoint via laser technology, will grow from its current nascent state to a strong niche player in the next five years, according to a study by The...

Scientific-Atlanta unveils advanced Explorer 2100 and 3100 digital set-tops.(Scientific-Atlanta Inc.)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Widening its position in the interactive TV space, Scientific-Atlanta is building and shipping its new Explorer 2100 and 3100 digital interactive set-tops. Both advanced set-tops offer enhanced features including: * Applications and...

AT&T break itself into four parts.(AT and T Corp. to become AT and T Business, AT and T Consumer, AT and T Wireless, and AT and T Broadband)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... In a bid to help stall stock prices that have fatten more than 40 percent in the past year, AT&T announced it is deconstructing itself. The broadband and business units will become separate companies, and the consumer services group will be...

All for one, and one for Arris; Antec, Nortel join broadband cable forces.(Nortel Networks corp., Arris Inc., Antec Corp., and Arris Interactive)(Brief Article)(Illustration)
December 1, 2000... Nortel Networks and ANTEC are realigning their cable TV organization and creating a new company that will acquire Nortel's ownership interest in Arris Interactive. The new company will be renamed Arris Inc., and will focus on the broadband...

Cable modems are residential choice.(cable market report)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Cable modems are the clear Leader in providing high-speed data access to the residential user, according to a report by Allied Business Intelligence. The report, "Cable Modems Worldwide: High-Speed Internet Access Over Cable Networks," says...

Best Buy to sell SOHOware products.(Best Buy Company Inc. and SOHOware Inc.)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... SOHOware Inc. has been selected by Best Buy Co. to provide broadband-based home networking products to customers nationwide. Best Buy will offer SOHOware's full suite of easy-to-install and simple-to-use home networking hardware in its more...

Fiberworks, Corning turn on the light.(Corning Inc. and Fiberworks Inc. contract)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Fiberworks will team with Corning Inc. to "light up" 15 Southeastern U.S. cities with citywide, all-optical broadband access and transport systems. Corning will be providing in excess of 175,000 kilometers of MetroCor fiber over the next three...

NET-36 and Excite@H0me ally.(At Home Corp. and PanAmSat company deal)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Excite@Home and NET-36, a PanAmSat company and provider of satellite-based Internet broadcast services, are partnering to deliver dynamic content to Excite@Home's broadband network. The two companies will deliver entertainment, news and sports...

Corning to buy Cisco's Pirelli stake.(Corning Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Pirelli Cable Corp. deal)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Cisco Systems plans to exercise its right to sell its 10 percent stake in Pirelli's optical components and devices to Corning. Cisco has agreed to take shares of Corning's common stock for its stake in the Pirelli units. In September, Corning...

Western Digital Corp. births Keen PM.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Western Digital. Corp. has formed a new subsidiary called Keen Personal Media Inc. (Keen PM), a company that provides interactive broadband software, services and hardware for television and Internet content management and television-based...

Take this modem and install it.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Excite@Home has introduced a new retail software kit designed to allow customers to install the company's broadband services them selves Consumers within the Excite@Home footprint will be able to visit RadioShack stores beginning in October and...

Com21 expands distribution.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Com21 and Broadband Services are partnering to distribute Com21's entire Line of broadband access equipment throughout the U.S. The agreement is valued at more than $40 million and will begin in the fourth quarter of 2000. The partnership...

TW Minn. lowers Road Runner cost.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Time Warner Cable's Minnesota system is reducing the consumer cost of its Road Runner high-speed cable modem service. In an effort to be more responsive to customers with multiple cable modems in the home, the operator plans to reduce the...

Liberate, RespondTV partner.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Liberate Technologies and RespondTV are partnering to integrate RespondTV's infrastructure and applications with the Liberate TV platform software for interactive television. Network operators, programmers and their advertiser customers can use...

CableLabs qualifies three more.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... CableLabs has qualified three new CMTS companies, re-qualified another and re-certified a company for one of its cable modems. The newly qualified CMTS companies are RiverDelta, Riverstone and Terayon Communication Systems. Motorola was...

RespondTV to support enhanced TV.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... WorldGate Communications Inc. and RespondTV are partnering to integrate RespondTV's enhanced TV applications within WorldGate's CableWare 2000 platform and Internet on Every TV service. The joint effort will bring additional enhanced TV content...

Four MSOs test system for PPV ordering from Internet.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... More than 1.6 million cable subscribers served by such systems as AT&T Broadband and Cablevision in Boston, Comcast Communications in southern New Jersey and Maryland/Virginia and Time Warner in the Milwaukee area will soon be able to use...

High Speed Access gets $75M.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... High Speed Access Corp, has signed an agreement with Vulcan Ventures Inc. and Charter Communications to receive a $75 million equity investment from both companies. Under the agreement, Vulcan and Charter will each invest equal amounts, The...

Broadwing pioneers DSL delivery of broadband.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Entering an increasingly competitive race to provide on-demand home entertainment, Broadwing Inc. is testing a new device that delivers movies and other programming to television sets via high-speed telephone lines. The service will be...

Cox, Sorrento team for optical network.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Sorrento Networks, a provider of optical networks, has entered into an agreement with Cox Communications to provide a nationwide optical network, with immediate initial installations in Virginia, California, Arizona and Louisiana. The...

Terayon introduces new CMTSs.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Terayon Communication Systems has introduced the Terayon BroadbandEdge 2800 and the Terayon BroadbandEdge 2000 CMTSs, that enable cable television operators to deliver voice, data and video services. The BroadbandEdge 2000 system has been...

Trilithic and AM join forces.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Trilithic and AM Communications have entered into an agreement that will allow AM's OmniStat Network Monitoring System to monitor, tog and display measurements made by Trilithic's Guardian Return Path monitoring system. OmniStat is a...

2001: The dawning of the DOCSIS delivery platform?
December 1, 2000... There are compelling reasons to converge set-top box control over DOCSIS Mankind been in the world for 30,000 years. During the first 29,500 years, the agricultural age, we worked together and created a world of towns and cities of up to...

TAPPING THE Braintrust (1).(Interview)
December 1, 2000... CABLE'S CTOs SPEAK OUT ON INTERACTIVE TV, ADVANCED SERVICES ROLLOUTS The cable industry's chief technologists are under immense pressure to lay the foundation that will allow their companies to roll out myriad new services, including...

TAPPING THE Braintrust (2).(Interview)
December 1, 2000... Braden: We do network powering today. That is our standard and we will continue to move forward with network powering both in the circuit switched as well as IP arena. We do have some phone customers that operate off of an LPSU, or a battery...

BALANCING power options is no easy task.
December 1, 2000... Network powering choices continue to be complicated and confusing. But the goal is still the same--get more power per subscriber and longer run times for backup systems. The cable TV industry has come a long way in the last decade or so,...

DC power: Is it time to switch?
December 1, 2000... As operators move from the realm of being video-only providers to serving up data and telephony, they should consider the option of DC powering for multiple services There was a time when cable was simple. Operators had virtual monopolies,...

Taking aim on ITV (1).(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... VOD clear winner in 2001 By the end of this month, cable could count 8.1 million digital cable subscribers, if the top-seven U.S. cable providers continue to attract new customers at the same rate in the fourth quarter as they did in the...

Taking aim on ITV (2).
December 1, 2000... AT&T Microsoft TV, Liberate VOD, walled garden, Broadband e-mail/Web Undefined Undefined Cablevision Sony, w/Spyglass VOD...

BREAKING down the barriers to ITV deployment.(interactive television)(Industry Overview)(Statistical Data Included)
December 1, 2000... While cable operators in the United Kingdom and Europe surge ahead with deployment of interactive television (ITV) services over advanced set-top boxes, the United States cable industry pushes to catch up, despite accelerating competition from...

Moving to an all-optical network.
December 1, 2000... It's still a question of economics Few will dispute that the vision of an all-optical network is a good one. Doing away entirely with electronic equipment and opto-electronic conversions makes the network faster and more efficient....

New options for DTV and the converged IP network.(digital television, Internet Protocol)(Industry Overview)
December 1, 2000... Provisioning services over an IP-based cable system The worldwide explosion of the Internet over the past eight years has greatly changed the way that people communicate with one another as well as how we get information. The concept of...

Taking the hybrid road to IP telephony.(Internet Protocol)
December 1, 2000... How operators can maximize existing network investments The emergence of converged IP services riding over a cable hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) network promises great opportunities for cable operators, including new revenue from high-speed...

Profiting from the VoIP broadband home.(Voice-over-Internet Protocol)(Industry Overview)
December 1, 2000... What systems-level issues should operators consider? Recent rapid advances in Voice-over-Internet Protocol technology and systems have catapulted the market for VoIP telephony from a novel alternative system to a future technology of choice...

PCDTV cards: Friend or foe to cable?(personal computer digital television)
December 1, 2000... It's unclear whether consumers really want to watch DTV on their PCs Pop quiz: Which room in American homes will likely welcome the first wave of digital television (DTV) sets? Need a hint? It's not likely to be the living room. Why not?...

Interesting times.(broadband services development)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... We live in "interesting times." Anxiety created by a turbulent and poorly seen future is reflected in the gyrations of the stock market and a kaleidoscope of breathless news stories. Washington, with urging from every stripe of lobbyist, seems...

Put a pod in your headend.(cable television development)
December 1, 2000... Flexible layout allows fast deployment of new services As the cable TV industry accelerates the process of introducing new services over its coaxial cable infrastructure, many new challenging issues need to be considered and addressed. The...

Meeting the MDU modem challenge head-on.
December 1, 2000... Delivering converged data and video over coax The significant increase in diverse telecommunications demands from end users poses a compelling challenge to cable multiple system operators. This challenge is especially notable within...

Small ops struggle to launch new services.(cable television)(Industry Overview)
December 1, 2000... Smaller systems often the last to get capital, equipment For small, independent cable operators, the realities of increasing competition, advancing technologies, lack of access to capital and the growing popularity of new services are...

Voting vs. messing with the market.(philosophy on voting)(Brief Article)(Column)
December 1, 2000... I am writing this just a few days before going to the polls to vote in the Presidential election. Voting is considered a sacred duty in the United States. Those who don't vote are criticized as being not worthy of democracy. Even those who...

Laser dangers lurk in plain sight.(safety measures and standards)
December 1, 2000... Technicians risk paying high health price for powerful laser devices When laser diode manufacturers improved the linearity of their communications-class lasers, they also boosted optical launch power to the Food and Drug Administration's...

Maximizing mass media ITV.(as Web-based marketing/electronic commerce)
December 1, 2000... Comparing broadcast vs. server-based solutions Businesses today will either sink or swim based on how quickly they respond to changing market and technological factors. Today, the most successful brands are those that take full advantage of...

The benefits of Internet-enabled data.(business systems analysis)
December 1, 2000... A manager's guide to e-business software The cable industry is busy building tomorrow's network infrastructure, providing converged Internet, telecommunications and entertainment services. All of this is being done without realizing the...

BUSINESS BRIEFS.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... SCTE forms executive council EXTON, Pa.--The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) has created an advisory group, the SCTE Executive Council, to "assist it in its expanding industry role." This past September, SCTE...

business people.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... The board of directors of C-COR.net has elected David Woodle as chairman, president and chief executive officer. As newly-elected chairman, he succeeds Richard E. Perry, who is retiring after 15 years of service with the company. Woodle...

new products.(Product Announcement)
December 1, 2000... PRODUCT REVIEWS Multimedia backbone KENNESAW, Ga.--BarcoNet has launched iLYNX, a multimedia backbone for broadband services. The new digital fiber backbone supports multiple service transport, including video, IF, Internet, TS, QAM,...

reader service.(Product Announcement)
December 1, 2000... Advanced Networking C-COR.net RS# 79 PG# 133 Global supplier of RF and AM fiber optic products for two-way HFC networks. Provides advanced engineering and field support nationwide for network management, servicing and solutions....

The 2000 Western Show (1).
December 1, 2000... November 28-December 1, 2000, Los Angeles, California 3ABN 4130 3Com Corporation 1655 847-262-5000 3Com is a global company with 11,500 employees located in 174...

The 2000 Western Show (2).
December 1, 2000... 408-953-9100 www.com21.com Com21 Inc. is a leading global supplier of system solutions for the broadband access market. The Company's Data-Over-Cable Services Interface Specification (DOCSIS), Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB), and...

The 2000 Western Show (3).(Product Announcement)
December 1, 2000... Metabyte Networks, Inc. 3001 MetaTV 3149 Micromuse 2539 Microsoft 3617 Microtune, Inc. ...

The 2000 Western Show (4).(Viewsonics Inc. statistics)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
December 1, 2000... LOCKINATOR[TM] series of terminators; and headend signal management devices. Viewsonics is based in Pompano Beach Florida and operates a wholly-owned manufacturing facility in Shanghai, China. Vsoft ...

Internet security challenges.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... The Internet has brought huge changes to the cable industry in the areas of new services and applications, and has created enormous opportunities. But the Internet has also created challenges in the areas of security and copy protection....

DIAL 911: Reliability ... 99.999%.(development of cable television services)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... The transformation of the cable industry from a one-dimensional video-based business to a full service provider of video, voice and data, including IP telephony and high-speed data is gaining momentum. With potential monthly revenues from...

Provisioning Gets Active.(cable television services development)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... The cable industry's new mission statement reads: Provisioning and system management are critical to the deployment of new services that will lead operators to the promised land of greater profits. Operators have a potential increase of...

Unleashing Converged Services.(from cable television)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... The emerging Home Network market and advanced new services such as high-speed data, IP over cable telephony and Internet access are expected to generate spectacular revenues for cable operators and multi-service providers, and in turn elevate...

Cable Broadband.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Bringing It Home Next-generation service delivery depends on robust cable OSS Operations support systems (OSS) and managed networks are hot, and their role as a driving force in the complex, mercurial world of new communications...

Cable OSS: The Foundation of Service Management.(operating support services)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Modular, flexible solutions key for cable operators Tightly integrated and loosely coupled" is Sigma's mantra as it automates functions deeper into the cable industry's networks and back offices. Tight integration ensures OSS deliver the...

Network Topology and Service Diagnostics.(from cable television)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2000... Managing operations in an open access environment The frantic scramble by multi-service providers to deploy a smorgasbord new services is raising myriad technical and operational questions as OSS solutions become front and center at a...