CED articles from February 2001

CED archives from February 2001

Caught in a kilobyte world.(difficulty in gaining broadbeand access)(Column)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... There's an old axiom that says you should never use yourself or your family to illustrate a "typical" consumer's thoughts or wishes because you might not be as typical as you think you are. With that thought firmly in mind, there's...

CableLabs wraps latest modem/ CMTS certification wave.
February 1, 2001... CableLabs completed its latest wave of certification, covering two generations of high-speed cable modems and CMTS equipment. The modems are part of the DOCSIS program for versions 1.0 and 1.1. Five companies--Ambit Microsystems, D-Link...

Charter selects Nortel for IP trial.(Charter Communications Inc.)(Nortel Networks)(ANTEC Corps.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Charter Communications announced an agreement in December with Nortel Networks and ANTEC to conduct an end-to-end, IP-over-cable-telephony field trial in St. Louis. The trial will use carrier-grade cable equipment from Nortel Networks...

Pace launches fastest-ever digital box.(Pace Micro Technology)(Pace Micro Technology )(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Pace Micro Technology has launched its fastest-ever ONdigital set-top box with advanced tuner design, for improved reception in marginal, coverage areas. The tuner performance has also been enhanced to maximize the reception potential of the...

John Thomas, Lindsay founder, dies.(Lindsay Electronics)(Obituary)
February 1, 2001... John Thomas, 78, founder and chairman of Canadian firm Lindsay Electronics, died of cancer December 27. Funeral services were held December 30 at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Lindsay, Ontario, Canada. He is survived by his wife, Emma, two...

Charter gives nod to Wink.(Charter Communications Inc. offers interactive cable to South Florida via Wink Communications Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Charter Communications Corp. became the first cable company in South Florida to offer interactive TV by Wink Communications as a standard feature to its digital cable subscribers on the Scientific-Atlanta Explorer set-top box. "We are...

Cisco Systems Inc. delays home network launch.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... The home of the future, where everything from alarm clocks to lawn sprinklers is connected to the Internet, may be a bit farther down the road than previously thought. Networking giant Cisco Systems said last month it was delaying the...

Telocity begins VOD technology trial.(video-on-demand)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... In December, Telocity announced the launch of a 90-day technology trial for VOD services with Villa Montage Systems, a provider of broadband content delivery solutions. The Telocity VelocityPort gateway and Villa Montage Systems platform...

upfront.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Time Warner announced in December its cable division would increase its stake in the Road Runner high-speed Internet service, as part of a restructuring made possible by a pact between AT&T Corp., one of the other shareholders in the service,...

Time Warner turns on another VOD site.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Concurrent Computer Corp. has launched VOD services for Time Warner Cable's Tampa Bay residents in Pinellas County, expanding what is already the industry's largest VOD commercial deployment to a total of 130,000 digital subs. Using...

BroadJump partners with Core Networks, Incanta and Terayon.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... BroadJump announced new partnerships with Core Networks, Incanta and Terayon. BroadJump also announced its Partner program, aimed at bringing together the best-of-breed in broadband technologies. BroadJump's partners relationships enhance...

Rant and Concurrent integrate their products.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Rant Technology and Concurrent Computer Corp. have sucessfully integrated their products and have developed and end-to-end system to deliver content from studio to service providers (cable operators and telcos) over satellite and terrestrial...

FCC eyeing iTV restrictions.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... The FCC may consider broader cable industry interactive-TV restrictions than those it placed on the merger of America Online and Time Warner, "Broadcasting Cable Online" reported, citing unnamed sources. The report stated that the FCC might...

S-A boosts 6,000,000 set-top production.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Scientific-Atlanta (S-A) will boost production capacity of its Explorer digital interactive set-top box at its plant in Juarez, Mexico to 6 million per year, or 1.5 million per quarter by the end to the current quarter, representing a six-fold...

VeriSign to operate Root CA.(VeriSign Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... VeriSign has been selected to operate CableLabs' "Root Certificate Authority," which establishes the hierarchy to use digital certificates to secure cable modems across the industry. This enables the implementation of the cable modem...

MetaTV creates interactive site for Ford.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... MetaTV has been selected by J. Walter Thompson to design a TV-centric interactive offering for automaker Ford Motor Co. MetaTV, in cooperation with J. Walter Thompson, deployed Ford's interactive TV services on the AT&T Digital Cable...

INT2 to work with Time Warner.(INT2-Internetwork Integration Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Time Warner Cable has contracted INT2-Internetwork Integration Inc.--to provide program management and implementation services for the deployment of digital video technologies in various systems operated by the MSO. Time Warner faces the...

Broadcom's silicon tuner certified.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Broadcom Corp. announced that its BCM3415 chip became the first silicon tuner to pass the CableLabs certification process. The BCM3415 silicon tuner and BCM3350 single-chip cable modem passed certification in an Ambit Microsystems PCI cable...

Enron Broadband and Blockbuster launch entertainment on-demand in three cities.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... In December, Enron Broadband Services and Blockbuster began delivering movies via the Blockbuster Entertainment On-Demand Service over Enron's broadband network in Seattle, Portland, Ore. and Salt Lake City. The initial launch fulfills the goal...

C-Cube rolls out DoMiNo.(C-Cube Microsystems Inc.)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2001... C-Cube is unveiling a new network media processor called DoMiNo, which has the industry's first programmable, single chip, multi-stream, multi-format MPEG architecture. Customizable for applications in the networked digital home...

Digital set-tops slated to generate $21 billion.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... A worldwide conversion from traditional analog broadcasts to digitally encoded transmissions is powering the digital set-top box market to become a $21 billion market by 2005. The global installed base of digital set-top boxes will increase...

Heel!(Broadband transmission)
February 1, 2001... AS NEW BROADBAND SERVICES ARE UNLEASHED ON THE MARKET, IT'S EXPECTED CONSUMERS WILL GOBBLE UP BANDWIDTH AT ALARMING, AND AS YET, VERY UNPREDICTABLE RATES. WHAT'S AN OPERATOR TO DO? There's a beast lurking in the broadband bushes up ahead....

NO TIME TO SING THE BLUES.
February 1, 2001... With dot-com and DSL carnage all over the road, and press releases about job layoffs littering the streets, it might have been understandable if half of the attendees of this year's Conference on Emerging Technologies went to New Orleans to...

Three industry pros take top ET honors.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Polaris, Star of Integrity and IDEA Awards handed out During ET's annual awards luncheon, J. Glyndell Moore, Dave Pangrac and Randy Goehler were honored with individual awards for their innovative and unique efforts to deploy new network...

Getting a slice of the business market.(Passive Optical Networking)
February 1, 2001... Passive Optical Networking key to unlocking services As long distance voice and data transport margins continue to wither, it is clear that only service providers who dominate the local access market will survive. In this evolved service...

State governments get in the broadband act.
February 1, 2001... New programs spark innovation, promise economic benefits There are many forces driving broadband innovation and deployment--demand for data-intensive services, high-profile mergers and acquisitions and an abundance of well-funded start-ups...

Shaw hawking satellite to U.S. backers.(Shaw Communications Inc.)
February 1, 2001... MSO plans aggressive combat against BCE with Ka-Band satellite Shaw Communications intends to go where no Canadian MSO has gone before: into space. Yes, the Calgary-based MSO--which also owns direct-to-home satellite TV service Star Choice,...

On the scene at the 2001 CES Show.(Consumer Electronics Show)
February 1, 2001... Consumer confab buzz centers around home networking Digital glitz and gadgets were the predictable trimmings at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, where 1,800 exhibitors crammed 1.2 million square feet of floor space in and around the...

DSL tackles retail distribution.(Digital Subscriber Line)
February 1, 2001... But service providers must hone provisioning process to succeed The use of retail outlets as a sales and distribution channel for DSL (digital subscriber line) is assuming a more vital role in the DSL roll-out strategy for many telcos, ISPs...

Important lessons from the PVR.(The Personal Video Recorder (PVR))(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... The Personal Video Recorder (PVR) provides a unique learning opportunity for technologists in the cable industry, A variety of lessons are available for those who would experiment with the device. Some lessons can be used to predict reactions...

BUSINESS BRIEFS.(Sunrise Telecom Inc.; Huntel Communications Inc.)
February 1, 2001... HunTel invests in Convacent CHARLOTTE, N.C.--HunTel Systems, an owner and operator of telephone and cable TV companies, has invested in Convacent Corp. HunTel also provides engineering services to the two industries. Mike Jacobson,...

new products.(NELCO Products Inc.)(Media Access Technologies Ltd.)(American Power Conversion )
February 1, 2001... Wireless home networking FREMONT, Calif.--HighSpeed Surfing Inc. has launched an 11 Mbps wireless solution for networking homes and businesses. The products are designed to support Windows 95/98/2000/NT desktop and notebook computers. The...

Subsidized cable modems--Their time has come.
February 1, 2001... The FCC's inquiry on cable modem Open Access is meandering along, with all the usual suspects making all the usual arguments. But nobody is telling the FCC about the implications of subsidized modems. So let me share this with you. What...

Electricity in the air?(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... HAVING BEEN AROUND, covering the cable TV "space" (as it's being called these days) for the past 15 years, I've seen a lot of things come full-circle. It's arguable that none of the futuristic new services and wonderful new gadgets are really...

EXTENDING THE REACH.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... With the consumer appetite for broadband services being seemingly insatiable, fixed wireless service providers are finding a new window of opportunity to deploy services to both residences and businesses, given perceived slowness on the part of...

LMDS HITS THE SPOT?
February 1, 2001... Local Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS) is designed to replace the last mile of wire in a communications network with a wireless local loop and provide higher speed data access than wireline carriers can offer. It generally costs less than...

MMDS.
February 1, 2001... Hunting for the perfect last-mile connection The "last mile" has been a bottleneck of frustration for residential customers waiting for high-speed Internet access. While cable and DSL have helped slake some of the thirst for data, those...

RUSHING FOR UNLICENSED SPECTRUM.
February 1, 2001... Speed-to-market pressures may make the unlicensed U-NII band a fixed wireless gold mine for both incumbent and start-up broadband service providers alike. When it comes to blazing new trails in alternative broadband delivery technologies,...

FIXED WIRELESS STANDARDS missing the MARK.
February 1, 2001... As providers of fixed wireless Internet services prepare to ramp up service deployments this year, mixed signals from standards bodies threaten to create an impasse in the quest for interoperability and open platforms. NO ONE RECEIVING ...

Move over, DSL ... here comes WIRELESS.
February 1, 2001... Growing concern over DSL distance limitations along with the quality of its connections, and nagging questions about provisioning times and lack of availability for cable modem service, are helping to elevate the fixed wireless business into an...

FENIX & EKANET on track for fixed wireless.
February 1, 2001... The promise of impressive revenues from voice, data and eventually video services via fixed wireless technology is the engine driving a host of new companies into the fixed wireless communications business, with one company in...

INDUSTRIAL SIZED wireless.
February 1, 2001... "In the future, there will be no smart buildings, just dumb buildings, and they'll be easy to identify-they'll be empty." -Gerry Lederer, author of Critical Connections and Wired for Profits Craig Kuhl, Contributing Editor E-mail:...

The ADVANTAGES of 3G technology as a solution for fixed wireless.
February 1, 2001... Third-generation (3G) wireless technology could change the face of residential networks in the future. Also referred to as IMT-2000, 3GPP, and UMTS, 3G is commonly associated with wireless mobility standards, specifications that offer high...

glossary of terms.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Fixed wireless definitions To help you navigate the wide open airways, below is a brief, albeit incomplete, glossary of terms and acronyms that are flying around the wonderful world of the fixed wireless broadband industry. CDMA ...