CED articles from July 2000

CED archives from July 2000

The good, the bad, and the ugly.(video-on-demand)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Has video-on-demand's time finally come? After years (decades, really) of hype, false promises and downright wishful thinking, is the industry finally on the cusp of turning over the control of television consumption to the viewer? Can it...

AT&T to test open access.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... AT&T Broadband says it will become the first cable operator in the U.S. to test open access this November when it launches "AT&T Broadband Choice" in Boulder, Colo. The six-month technical trial will involve as many as 500 consumers. In...

CoreComm does FTTH.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... CoreComm Ltd. says it will take the fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) challenge via a new business unit tentatively named CoreComm FiberCo. CoreComm FiberCo, which is collaborating with Corning Inc. on the project, will focus on pushing fiber...

ICTV investment round nets $87 million.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Proof that it's gaining monetary traction and philosophical buy-in from the cable industry, ICTV recently received an $87 million investment in a round led by Liberty Digital and Canadian MSO Shaw Communications. ACTV, Adelphia, Motorola,...

Com21 pumps up the `volume'.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Com21 has won recent orders for its line of DOCSIS-certified modems from three MSOs: Comcast, Charter and Massillon Cable TV. Com21 says Comcast has ordered an additional 50,000 cable modems, but declined to provide unit figures for the other...

S-A boosts set-top production, cuts deals.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Producing 1 million set-tops per quarter apparently isn't enough for Scientific-Atlanta (S-A) to quench a consumer market that thirsts for digital services. Instead, maybe 1.3 million per quarter will suffice. Citing surging demand for...

Cable Center tops off.(The National Cable Television Center and Museum at the University of Denver)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Complete with an Air Force fly-over to honor the passing of Bill Daniels, a crowd gathered at the University of Denver to watch the meticulous placement of the final steel beam of The National Cable Television Center and Museum, which is slated...

Pace sets sites on U.S. and abroad.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Armed with deployment successes in Europe and a deal last year with Time Warner Cable that called for a minimum of 750,000 digital cable set-tops, Pace Americas, a subsidiary of Pace Micro Technologies, is now focusing its efforts in North and...

More USBs get the A-OK.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... CableLabs says seven universal serial bus (USB) "plug-and-play" cable modems have joined the ranks of the DOCSIS 1.0-certified. USB wares from 3Com, Toshiba, GVC and Askey were given the stamp of approval during certification wave 13, joining...

Harmonic hopes to bust bottlenecks with new CMTS.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Harmonic Inc. has introduced a node-based Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS) designed to push intelligence deeper into cable networks and provide operators with more return path capacity. "We think (the NODEcmts) will ignite a network...

Cable telephony to ring up big numbers.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Spurred by bundling and Voice-over-IP (VoIP) technology, worldwide revenues from HFC telephony services will jump from last year's humble $293 million to more than $7 billion by 2004, predicts research firm Cahners In-Stat Group, which is owned...

Cable modem market to exceed 5.5 million units.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Driven by consumers' need for speed, worldwide shipments of cable modems exceeded 1.47 million units during the first quarter of 2000, and will surpass 5.5 million units by the end of this year, according to a recent report by Dataquest Inc. In...

`UltraBand' to break speed limits.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... With help from cable industry vets like former Time Warner corporate Vice President David Pangrac, Advent Networks Inc. has launched a patent-pending platform called "UltraBand," claiming it can deliver content and applications to computers and...

Time Warner launches software on demand.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Time Warner Cable's Northeast Ohio division has launched MediaStation's SelectPlay service, giving its Road Runner cable modem customers there access to a trove of CD-ROM titles on demand. Time Warner trialed the service earlier this year. ...

Cox to trial ITV.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Number-five U.S. MSO Cox Communications has penned a deal with Excite@Home to provide Internet access and Web portal services for the MSO's interactive television (ITV) trial in San Diego. Starting the second half of 2000, the trial will...

Customers doling out dollars for SoD.(software on demand)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Broadband-enabled customers are spending an average of more than $8 per month for Into Networks' software-on-demand (SoD) service, the company says, citing an in-house study. Into Networks' PlayNow.com SoD service offers roughly 100 software...

Time Warner `interactivates' Los Angeles.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Hoping to build a pile of incremental revenue, Time Warner Communications' Los Angeles division has signed up for Prasara's Customer Care and Education software suite, as well as its TakeOut TV application for food delivery services. ...

VOD: Hot and ready to serve.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Following a series of fits and starts and well-publicized trials like Time Warner's Full Service Network in Orlando, video-on-demand (VOD) finally appears ready to erupt as the cable industry moves further into 2000 and beyond. That time...

Vendors put VOD on front burner.
July 1, 2000... Following a rise in trials and commercial launches this year, the video-on-demand market appears ready to explode in 2001 Spurred by aggressive moves by cable MSOs such as Time Warner Cable, Insight Communications, Cox and Comcast, the...

VOD gets real in Hawaii.
July 1, 2000... Oceanic Cable's blueprint for a successful launch Spread the news: Video-on-demand is real. Since the beginning of this year, any digital cable TV subscriber of Time Warner's Oceanic Cable division on the island of Oahu has had access to...

A heavenly solution?
July 1, 2000... Satellite-based approach reduces cost, enhances reliability Industry analysts have long taken the position that a substantive competitive advantage will accrue to cable TV operators who choose to enhance their current offerings with...

FLYING BLIND.
July 1, 2000... As cable networks transition into the digital realm, the need for new test gear becomes paramount. Yet, in many cases, it's not entirely clear as to what should be tested--or how often it should be. Reliability, performance and signal...

Jackpot!
July 1, 2000... SCTE attendees strike it rich in Vegas The opportunity to "touch the technology" and hit the training jackpot drew thousands of cable industry technologists to that gambling oasis in the desert, Las Vegas, for SCTE's Cable-Tec Expo 2000....

Cable-Tec fun & games.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... It's no surprise that the main purpose of SCTE's Cable-Tec Expo is to bring broadband professionals face-to-face with the latest technology in the industry. But it also serves as a forum to acknowledge individuals and companies for their...

Choosing the right DWDM design.
July 1, 2000... How to evaluate variables affecting bandwidth and cost Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) has been shown to be the transport system of choice for secondary hub rings in HFC networks [1]. In this article, the performance of...

reader service.
July 1, 2000... Advanced Networking C-COR.net RS# 30 PG# 57 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....

Mastering voice over cable.
July 1, 2000... How to execute an effective testing strategy It's a brave new world out there. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 has opened the local loop to competitors and is driving the convergence of voice, video and data networks. That's a given....

Skirting disaster.
July 1, 2000... Continuity planning can protect telephony services from failures In 1988, the Illinois Bell Telephone system suffered a catastrophic fire in its Hinsdale switching center. The fire impacted 38,000 customers, caused an estimated $60 million...

Time is money, Part 2.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... BY THOMAS G. ROBINSON, DIRECTOR OF REGULATORY AFFAIRS AND TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT, RIVER OAKS COMMUNICATIONS CORP. Ah, summer! In television land, the shows now run the gamut from summer re-runs to innovative try-outs, such as the latest...

BUSINESS BRIEFS.(News Briefs)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... C-COR.net, SilCom team on transponder LAS VEGAS--C-COR.net and Canada-based SilCom Technology Inc. have agreed to co-develop a transponder for C-COR.net's I-Flex II Fiber Node product line that is compatible with HMS (Hybrid Management...

new products.
July 1, 2000... New software release LAS VEGAS--Hal-Tec Corp. has introduced CADDStar version 6.0, which now includes enhancements to its integrated hybrid fiber/coax engineering, design and facility management software. The latest version contains...

Regulate the Internet?(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Loudly they shout, "Don't regulate the Internet!" And then softly, they add, "unless it gives us some business benefit." Who? Well, practically anyone might, but this time I caught the TV set manufacturers saying it. They want the government to...