11-11-96
Cable Telephony Plans Edging Forward in US, Japan and Israel
TCI Halts System Upgrades
Antec to Acquire TSX
Bay Networks Discloses Bulk of Trial Locations
Joint Board Rejects “E” Plan
Cable Telephony Plans Edging Forward in US, Japan and Israel
As reported in the last issue of The Broadband Bob Report, cable telephony service provisions are being actively pursued by operators in the UK. In addition to efforts in England, similar plans for cable telephony are being made in the US, Japan and Israel.
Currently, two US cable systems are offering telephony services: the TCI system in Hartford, Connecticut and the Jones Intercable system in Alexandria, Virginia. Though many MSO’s are still undecided about plans to launch services, the following operators have applied for local exchange carrier certification in at least one state: Time Warner, Cox Communications, Continental Cablevision, Jones Communications, Jones Intercable, Media One, Cablevision Systems, Viacom, Century, Adelphia, Hyperion, Midco, Comcast, American TV, N.E.W. Media, and Cablevision Lightpath. Most interconnections for planned services will be provided by Teleport Communications Group, a telco provider jointly owned by TCI, Cox, Comcast and Continental Cablevision. Certifications have been granted to the following operators to be a local exchange carrier:
Time Warner: Hawaii, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin
Cox: California, Louisiana, North Carolina and Virginia
TCI: California, Illinois, Connecticut and Louisiana
Continental Cablevision: California, Michigan
Jones Communications: Maryland and Virginia
Cablevision: Connecticut
Century: California
Media One: Georgia
Cablevision Lightpath: Ohio
American TV: Wisconsin
Jones Intercable: Wisconsin
N.E.W. Media: Wisconsin
In Israel, it was recently announced that two groups will be awarded licenses to provide cable telephony in that country. One of the groups, BARAK I.T.C. expects to receive the license in one month and begin services within the next six months. In addition to cable telephony, BARAK I.T.C. will offer a variey of different services including virtual private networks, calling cards, X.25 Internet access, frame relay, ATM and inter-network connectivity. Plans for dedicated services include bandwidth management and VSAT that will utilize applications such as message transmission, E-Mail and faxes.
BARAK I.T.C. is a joint venture consisting of Clalcom Ltd., Sprint, Clal Industries, France Telecom, Deutsche Telecom AG, and MATAV Cable Systems. Cable telephony services from the group are due to be provided through MATAV, which provides cable television to 25% of all households in Israel.
In Japan, both Titus Communications and Jupiter Telecommunications are preparing to launch telephony services. Titus will introduce phone service via cable television in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture with plans to extend the service to to the Tokyo area and eventually to Maebashi (Gunma Prefecture) and Yokohoma (Kanagawa Prefecture). Titus will offer rates 15 percent lower than NTT.
Jupiter will offer similar discounts in a soon to be launched cable telephony service in Suginami.
BARAK I.T.C.
http://www.barak.co.il
TCI To Halt System Upgrades
TCI announced that they have indefinitely halted HFC upgrades to many of its rural systems. The suspension of upgrades includes stoppages of supplies from fiber optic equipment vendors. Some of the vendors impacted will include Antec, NextLevel and Scientific-Atlanta.
TCI
http://www.tci.com
Antec To Acquire TSX
Antec announced that they will acquire TSX Corp, the parent company of Texscan, a manufacturer of fiber optics and broadband equipment. The acquisition, which should be finalized early next year, doubles Antec’s floor space and adds 700 employees.
Antec
http://www.antec.com
Texscan
http://www.texscan.com
Bay Networks Discloses Bulk of Trial Locations
In an effort to make a big splash at this year’s Western Show, Bay Networks has disclosed over 200 locations that are receiving their cable modems. The list, which includes an enormous amount of installations in Massachusetts and Maine is exclusively available for viewing at the CATV CyberLab. The list may be found at
http://2/modem/trials/.
Bay Networks
http://www.Bay Networks .com
CATV CyberLab
http://www.catv.org
Joint Board Rejects "E" Plan
Recently, the Federal Communications Federal-State Joint Board accepted many Universal Service proposals that would establish laws to provide US citizens with affordable access to advanced telecommunications services. However, the board did not accept a Clinton/Gore proposal known as the “E” plan.
The “E” plan would have established assurance that all national libraries and schools would have Internet access. Though the “E” plan failed to gain acceptance, the board did adopt a proposal that called for eligible schools and libraries to receive connectivity discounts ranging from 20-90 percent. Funding for schools and libraries benefitting from the program would come from taxes placed on intrastate and interstate revenues of providers of interstate telecommunications services.
The Universal Services program is a part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
FCC’s Universal Services Home Page
http://www.fcc.gov/bureaus/common_carrier/www/universal_service/welcome.html
© Copyright 2000 Gecko Research & Publishing
The Broadband Bob Report is a weekly take of the latest news regarding data over cable, 2-way HFC networks and related applications and services.
Subscribers to Broadband Bob’s Cable Modem Mailing List receive the Broadband Bob Report via E-Mail each Monday. For info on joining the mailing
list, visit
http://www.hfc.net/mailinglist
Information on corporate sponsorship of this newsletter is available at
/siteinfo/advertising.html