CED articles from January 2004

CED archives from January 2004

Broadband, but no longer 'free'.(in perspective)(Editorial)
January 1, 2004... Long-time readers of this space will recall that I have--repeatedly--brought attention to the fact that my home has been somehow, maddeningly placed in a "broadband-free" zone where neither DSL nor cable modem service was available. I always...

Charter launches iTV in Clarksville.(Upfront: latest news and insight)(interactive television services)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Charter Communications and corporate cousin Digeo Inc. have launched interactive television services to digital subs in Clarksville, Tenn. The deployment is notably significant because Charter is offering the service in Clarksville via...

Cedar Point dials up Paff as president/CEO.(Upfront: latest news and insight)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Cedar Point Communications has tapped cable vet Andy Paff as the IP telephony vendor's president and CEO. Paff most recently was chief technology officer at Colorado-based Broadband Services Inc., where he headed up the company's MapVantage...

Sigma Systems back in hand.(Upfront: latest news and insight)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... In a full-circle move, the former executives of broadband OSS software provider Sigma Systems have reacquired the company from Liberate Technologies, which had purchased Sigma back in July 2002 for about $62 million. According to a...

Terayon 'flexes' CMTS muscle.(Upfront: latest news and insight)(cable modem termination system)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Terayon Communication Systems has introduced a new cable modem termination system (CMTS) architecture designed to shave operational and capital expenditures. The company's patent-pending "FlexCMTS" architecture also aims to optimize...

Cablevision takes VoIP wide.(Upfront: latest news and insight)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Cablevision Systems Corp. has launched its flagship IP telephony service, Optimum Voice, throughout the MSO's Long Island, N.J., Connecticut, Westchester and New York City service area. The expansion makes the service available to more than 4...

SCTE launches NEC plan.(Upfront: latest news and insight)(National Electric Code )(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers has launched a new initiative that will result in a standard guidance document for installation compliance of broadband networks with the National Electric Code (NEC), a base document for...

Cox 'Xtends' its business reach.(Upfront: latest news and insight)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Xtend Networks Ltd. said Cox Communications will use the vendor's gear to boost the capacity of cable plant used to reach commercial customers. The deal marks the first in the U.S. for the Israel-based equipment supplier. Xtend's first...

DirecTV plugs into wireless.(Upfront: latest news and insight)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Many consumers who use one-way digital cable set-tops or satellite receivers have been faced with this common problem: The box needs access to a phone jack to support impulse pay-per-view purchases, but the nearest jack is in a completely...

WorldGate gets tech mojo for 'Ojo'.(Upfront: latest news and insight)(Mototech Inc)(broadband videophone)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... WorldGate Communications said it has secured Mototech Inc. as its design and manufacturing partner for the company's forthcoming "Ojo" broadband videophone. Mototech is an affiliate of Accton Technology Group. To flesh out the technical...

Verizon picks starting lineup for FTTP project.(Upfront: latest news and insight)(fiber-to-the premises)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Verizon, showing that it's serious this time about upgrading its networks, disclosed an initial list of vendors and short-term timelines for an ambitious fiber-to-the premises (FTTP) project. Verizon expects to begin FTTP deployment and...

SCTE to offer Pangrac tech training software.(Upfront: latest news and insight; Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers)(Pangrac & Associates Development Inc)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers has agreed to distribute cable technician training software from Pangrac & Associates Development Inc. (P&A). P&A's "Tech Trainer" software offers a collection of training and evaluation...

Pace appoints new Americas president.(Upfront: latest news and insight)(Michael Pulli appointed as apresident of Pace Micro Technology Americas)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Set-top vendor Pace Micro Technology plc has tapped Michael Pulli as president of its Americas division. Pulli assumed those duties in December, and is based at Pace's Boca Raton, Fla. office. Pulli takes over for Neil Gaydon, who will...

Shedding old light on cable's data pricing dilemma.(memory lane)
January 1, 2004... At the turn of the century in the little town of Conway, Ark., electricity was hot stuff. With demand for home lighting growing, in 1904, the city installed a new 200-horsepower Corliss steam engine and generator that would allow residents...

The power trio: Kevin Leddy, Mike LaJoie and Mike Hayashi have been key to Time Warner's successful foray into VOD, HDTV and digital video recording, and have played a prominent role in Plug & Play negotiations.(video on demand)(high definition television)(Cover Story)
January 1, 2004... When Time Warner Cable puts its heads together, good things usually happen. And when it comes to rolling out advanced broadband services, it's safe to say that three heads can indeed be better than one. That summation is only amplified at...

Plugging into plug & play: cablers, vendors work to make the agreement a reality.
January 1, 2004... Turning the ground-breaking Plug & Play agreement into technical reality is not as easy as, well, plug-and-play. Forged in December 2002 between the cable and consumer electronics industries and adopted as rule by the Federal Communications...

Smooth, sailing or the perfect storm? We've checked the skies and the seas to help us determine how some of the top broadband technology sectors will fare in 2004.
January 1, 2004... VIDEO-ON-DEMAND Changing course For much of the last two years, cable operators have been deploying VOD at a maddening clip. Time Warner Cable has the service virtually across the board. Comcast, Charter Communications 'and Insight...

Banking on asymmetry: the cost benefits of an asymmetric reverse path for VOD.(Fiberline: fiber optic technology)(video on demand)
January 1, 2004... As network planners within the MSOs look to build new, high-capacity, Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) video-on demand (VOD) networks, they are required to do so in manner that results in a substantially lower total cost of ownership as compared to...

One more time in Anaheim: VoIP, HD the tech focus of final Western Show.(Networking: advanced networking technology)(Voice over Internet Protocol )(high definition)
January 1, 2004... By CED staff Ending an era that spanned 36 years, about 6,150 people registered for the final Western Show to learn about and see the technologies and advanced services that cable operators will have to bear in their ongoing battle with...

How much does redundancy cost? The economics of high availability for VoIP in cable networks.(Broadband: business and news perspective)(Voice over Internet Protocol )
January 1, 2004... Cable operators who want to deploy PSTN-equivalent (residential primary line telephony) voice services over IP are most concerned about network and service availability. But how much does redundancy really cost? Do cable operators have to...

Opportunity knocks.(In the loop)(Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers )
January 1, 2004... We've all heard the phrase "rules Ware made to be broken." I think. though, that the person who uttered that phrase must have had some sort of oppositional disorder, because most people do seek to follow the rules, or at least their...

Quickening the deployment pace: Yassini works at putting MSOs and vendors on the same page.(Broadband: business and news perspective)(Rouzheh Yassini)(Interview)
January 1, 2004... It may have taken 75 years for DOCSIS to grow from a budding idea to a ubiquitous reality for the U.S. cable industry, but replicating such a timeframe for other platforms and services is unrealistic in today) fast moving broadband economy....

Data, voice provisioning.(New products: product reviews)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Incognito Software has introduced its Broadband Command Center-an integrated high speed data and Voice over IP (VoIP) device provisioning suite for broadband operators. With it, MSOs can use a single device-provisioning...

GigE transport module.(New products: product reviews)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... ANAHEIM, Calif. -- C-COR.net Corp. has unveiled its GigE Max, a new optical transport module in the company's CHP Max5000 headend platform. The new module provides features and performance optimized for MPEG transport between video-on-demand...

Wireless plant extension system.(Wireless Broadband)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Arcwave Inc. has begun shipping ARCXtend Release 1.1, featuring its PureBurst transmission technology, which enables cable MSOs to send an upstream DOCSIS channel over wireless links with no impact on their cable networks....

Raiding the CARS band.(capital currents)(Cable-Television Relay Service )
January 1, 2004... The FCC has begun a proceeding on a new, wildly impractical concept for spectrum management it calls "Interference Temperature." It plans to set up an experiment to test the concept. The guinea pig will be the CARS band, 12.7 to 13.2 GHz, still...