12-10-96
Motorola to Offer Vendors Free Cross Licensing
Comcast Launches @Home Service in Baltimore
Nortel, Com21 and Arris Create Partnership
Bay Networks (formerly LANcity) Cuts Costs on Data Comm Equipment
Nortel to Build HFC Network in Chile
Com21 Chooses Wind River System’s Software
HP Enhances HP CaLan Cable TV Analyzer
Time Warner to Use Books That Work for RoadRunner Content
IBM Announes Some Cable Modem Specifications
Motorola to Offer Vendors Free Cross Licensing
Motorola announced that the technology behind their CyberSURFR system will now be available to competing vendors as part of a royalty
free cross licensing offering. The strategic move allows other modem vendors to develop and market CyberSURFR compatible hardware and
have access to all technical intelligence and parts to develop such equipment. However, Motorola will require that the vendors that partake release their technology to the industry under a similar offering.
The free cross licensing program is a bold introduction by Motorola and probably would be defined as bizarre had the offering come from a less
prominent player in the industry. Though the strategy behind the move is open to interpretation, it clearly appears that Motorola is taking its shot at creating a de facto standard by drawing in vendors that are struggling with modem development (more than half of the announced vendors). The offering indicates that Motorola foresees continued delays in standards efforts and a less patient vendor community that is eager to get products available to the public. Success of the program and its effect on a confused multi-tiered standards effort will prove to be interesting.
The free cross licensing announcement comes as Motorola moves closer and closer to the forefront of the cable modem industry. Jim Phillips, corporate VP of Motorola claims that the vendor led the industry for the last quarter in modem shipments. Furthermore, the CyberSURFR modem continues to be named in newly announced trials and services worldwide.
Most recently, Motorola announced they had signed an agreement with Bina Sat-Com Sdn Bhd that calls for Motorola to supply 10,000 CableComm Cable Access Units to the Malaysian cable operator. The equipment will be used initially to deliver telephony services to the Kuala Lumpur area. Shipments are scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of this year.
Motorola
http://www.mot.com/multimedia
Disclosed Motorola Trials
/modem/trials/motorola.html
Comcast Launches @Home Service in Baltimore
Comcast announced the launching of @Home cable
modem service in Baltimore County, Maryland. The
announcement marks the second commercial launching
of @Home and the first commercial cable modem offering
by Comcast. Initially, the service will be offered to parts
of Baltimore County, but will eventually expand to cover
Howard County.
Comcast will be launching with both the Bay Networks (formerly LANcity) LCP modem
and Motorola’s CyberSURFR modem.
The @Home service will cost cable customers $39.95 per month
and for non-subscribers there will be a $59.95 per month fee. Installation, which will be provided by Comcast and CompUSA
will cost $175.
Comcast @Home has announced that they plan to offer similar
services in Sarasota, Florida; northern New Jersey; suburban
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; suburban Detroit, Michigan; and
Orange County, California. Launching in these areas are expected
by the summer of 1997.
The launching comes as a mild surprise considering that @Home had indicated that service launchings in Arlington Heights, Illinois and
Hartford, Connecticut would follow the introduction of the service in
Fremont, California.
Comcast
http://www.comcast.com
@Home
http://www.home.net
Nortel, Com21 and Arris Create Partnership
Nortel, Com21 and Arris Interactive have
joined together to establish a co-marketing
agreement. The three companies will co-market
Com21’s ComUNITY Access cable modem system
and Arris’ Cornerstone coax telephony system.
Nortel will act as a global distributor for the
vendors, pitching a single system solution that
will provide HFC networks with both telephony
and high speed data capabilities.
As part of the non-exclusive agreement, Arris
and Com21 will undertake compatibility testing
to ensure that their systems will work together
on a single cable plant.
The partnership announcement follows a series of
international Com21 marketing partnerships and
announcements of two systems that will be testing
Com21 cable modems.
Nortel
http://www.nortel.com
Com21
http://www.com21.com
Bay Networks (formerly LANcity) Cuts Costs on Equipment
Bay Networks (formerly LANcity) has announced that they have reduced
the cost of their data communications equipment.
The cost of the LCP cable modem has been reduced
from $595 to $495. The highest volume customer
will receive cuts that bring the per unit cost of the
modem down to $395.
In addition to the cost reduction announced, Bay Networks (formerly LANcity)
has upgraded its system softwre to version 3.0. The
new software offers support for Virtual Private Networks,
end-to-end qos and security, multicasting, and mobile
connectivity.
Bay Networks (formerly LANcity)
http://www.baynetworks.com
Nortel to Build HFC Network in Chile
Nortel announced that they have signed a
contract with VTR to build a HFC network
and deploy equipment to support telephony
services in Chile. The 6-year, $300 million project
is expected to bring Nortel revenues in
excess of $180 million. The first phase of
the project is scheduled for the first quarter
of 1997 in Santiago.
Nortel will deploy their SDH transmission equipment,
Telrad TMX-100 switches and Arris Interactive’s
Cornerstone Voice telephony system.
When the network expands to offer high speed data
services, it is expected that Com21 will provide
cable modems for the network.
Nortel
http://www.nortel.com
Com21 Chooses Wind River Systems Software
Wind River Systems announced that Com21 and
3Com have chosen WRS’ Tornado software for use
with their data communications systems.
Tornado software is available for unix, windows95, and
windowsNT platforms. The software consists of the
Tornado tool suite; VxWorks, a real time operating system;
and communications options such as Ethernet, serial line, BDM,
ICE, or ROM emulator.
In January of 1996, Hewlett Packard announced that they
would use WRS softare for use with their QuickBurst cable
modem.
Wind River Systems
http://www.wrs.com
Com21
http://www.com21.com
Hewlett Packard Enhances HP CaLan Cable TV Analyzer
HP announced that they have added digital
carrier power measurements as a standard
feature to the HP CaLan 8591C cable tv analyzer.
The feature is available for users in most
countries using NTSC and PAL formats.
The feature will be available on December 1,
and be included without an increase in the
analyzer’s cost ($14,500). In field units can
be sent in and upgraded for a fee of $250.
Hewlett Packard Test and Measurement
http://www.tmo.hp.com
Time Warner to Use Books That Work for Content for RoadRunner
Time Warner’s Road Runner service will feature
the Home Improvement Encyclopedia provided
by Books That Work. The online content will
provide multimedia demonstrations of hundreds
of home improvement projects.
Books That Work
http://www.btw.com
Time Warner
http://pathfinder.com/@@oNnDswcAS1ZjdHar/Corp/divisions/cablehome.html
IBM Announces Some Cable Modem Specifications
IBM has announced that their Cable On-Line cable
modem will be an ATM based modem offering support
of 30Mbps downstream and 2.5Mbps upstream. The
modem, which utilizes 64QAM modulation is compatible
with Zenith’s cable modems.
IBM
http://www.ibm.com
© Copyright 2000 Gecko Research & Publishing
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