11/30/97
Com21 Shifts Gears, Joins Cisco Camp
Cablelabs Announces DOCSIS Certification Program
Motorola Introduces New CyberSURFR WAVE Cable Modem
Road Runner Launches in El Paso & Canada
Lyonnaise Des Eaux to Offer Voice, Digital Video, & Data Service Package
Harmonic Lightwaves Announces Availability of MCNS QAM Modulator
Northern Cable Launches Educational LAN using Terayon Cable Modems
Scientific Atlanta Introduces Free Reverse Path Configuration Consulting Services
Guam and Philippines Operators to Connect Cable Systems
Cox to Use IDT's Internet Backbone for Northeastern U.S. Services
PC Magazine Awards @Home for Technical Excellence
Com21 Shifts Gears, Joins Cisco Camp
As the industry prepares for a wave of MCNS DOCSIS compliant products, Com21 has released a series of announcements indicating how the company will shape its strategy in order to compete in a market that is quickly being adopted by the router giants and mainstream electronic retail vendor community.
The company's original proprietary-driven data network solution known as comUNITY is in the process of being beefed up to provide more flexibility and functionality. First, the system has been modified so that it can support telephone return service using the existing ComPORT cable modems and headend. An upgrade to two-way service can be accomplished by a simple reconfiguration within ComUNITY's network management system. Secondly, the company plans to offer a parallel port PC interface as an alternative to 10BaseT. The new interface should make installation easier, be available to more PC users than USB and IEEE 1394, and eliminate the requirement of an Ethernet NIC. Last, Com21 plans to fully integrate telephony within the network. The announcement of a development agreement with a telephony vendor is expected in early 1998.
Though the company has big plans for future generations of its proprietary system, Com21 has also decided to build a MCNS compliant cable modem. Instead of developing its own end to end solution, the vendor has chosen to join the Cisco camp [Sony, Panasonic, Thomson Consumer, Hayes, Samsung, Terayon & NextLevel] and build a cable modem to Cisco's design.
The announcement comes as a surprise considering that the company has no presence in the retail market. A company representative stated the decision to build a MCNS compliant cable modem was based on Com21's distribution strategy, but would not elaborate. It is expected that the company has already established a retail channel through a significant OEM partnership or is close to becoming acquired by a world retailer. Possible candidates include Philips, which is distributing the company's products and has placed a huge order for ComPORT cable modems and Denmark-based Siemens AG which recently made a $5 million equity investment in the company and also distributes Com21's system in Europe.
In addition to announcing portions of the company's product strategy, Com21 has also announced how it plans to expand its production capacity. Last week, Com21 announced that it has signed an agreement with Celestica to build its ComPORT cable modems. Celestica, a Toronto-based global manufacturer and distributor of computer and telecommunications equipment has locations in Canada, England and throughout the United States. Com21 is expected to secure financing for volume production by filing an IPO in the first half of next year.
Com21 claims that has shipped its comUNITY network to more than 100 locations in more than 24 countries.
Com21
http://www.com21.com
Cisco
http://www.cisco.com
Philips
http://www.philips.com
Siemens AG
http://www.siemens.de
Celestica
http://www.celestica.com
Cablelabs Announces DOCSIS Certification Program
Cablelabs has introduced a program that will allow cable modem vendors to have their products certified as MCNS DOCSIS compliant and interoperable with other certified equipment. A certification board, staffed by cable operators will issue "interoperability seals" to the vendors that submit products that pass a series of tests.
The process will require vendors to:
1. Complete the CableLabs conformance checklist and submit it as an affidavit of DOCSIS conformance.
2. Successfully complete the CableLabs common test suite in their own laboratories to the satisfaction on an inspection team made up of cable operators and CableLabs staff
3. Participate in interoperability testing with CableLabs each time certification is sought for a new or revised product.
The certification program should eliminate the possibility of multiple MCNS compliant system designs that lack interoperability. The emergence of camp-like interoperability efforts by Cisco and its partners and one by 3Com and Bay raised concerns about a delay in industry-wide interoperability. Cisco initiated its renegade strategy with hopes that the weight of its brand name, the brand names of its partners, its time to market and its influence within the industry would allow the company to create a de facto standard for its approach to the design of a MCNS DOCSIS compliant system. Others would need to be Cisco-compliant.
The concern is over …or is it?
Which vendor will be the first to receive certification? Will it be Cisco? It could be a system by Bay or 3Com. The first system to be accepted will be important since that vendor's particular approach to DOCSIS will be defined as the certifiable standard. To avoid strong market implications, it would probably be wise to hand out the first seal to a less influential player such as NetGame or Phasecom.
Cablelabs
http://www.cablelabs.com
MCNS
http://www.cablemodem.com
Cisco
http://www.cisco.com
3Com
http://www.3com.com
Bay Networks
http://www.baynetworks.com
Motorola Introduces New CyberSURFR WAVE Cable Modem
Motorola has introduced a new cable modem known as CyberSURFR Wave, which utilizes 16 QAM for upstream modulation. The addition of 16-QAM enables the product to support 1.5 Mbps, a significant improvement over the earlier version's 4-DQPSK driven return that only enabled support up to 768 Kbps. The product is also much smaller than previous generation cable modems. Through the use of ATM provisioning at the headend, the new modem also features bandwidth allocation.
CyberSURFR Wave will become available in Q'1 of 1998.
Motorola also announced that it will reduce the per unit cost of its CyberSURFR cable modems to US$325 in volume, which is a 20% cut.
In addition to its proprietary line, Motorola also plans to develop an end-to-end MCNS DOCSIS compliant system.
Motorola
http://www.mot.com/multimedia/
Road Runner Launches in El Paso & Canada
Time Warner has announced that Road Runner has been commercially launched by Time Warner's Paragon Cable in El Paso, Texas and by Cable Atlantic in Newfoundland, Canada. With the addition of the Canadian system, Road Runner claims its ninth system and its first journey outside of the U.S.
In El Paso, the service, which features Motorola's cable modems, has become available to 230,000 households.
In the province of Newfoundland, Cable Atlantic will be launching the Road Runner service on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis with expectations of offering it to 52,000 homes by the end of '98. Cable Atlantic will charge subscribers C$49.95 a month and a one-time installation fee of C$109.95. The service will utilize an existing deployment of Zenith cable modems. Routing and other network equipment will be provided by Cisco and DEC.
Cable Atlantic is Newfoundland's largest cable operator and ISP. The system claims 75,000 video subs.
Road Runner is in the process of altering its content and appearance. A new look modeled after America Online is expected to be introduced at the Western Show. US West and Microsoft are providing assistance with the overhaul.
Road Runner
http://www.rdrun.com
Paragon Cable
http://www.paragonelp.com
Cable Atlantic
http://www.cableatlantic.nf.ca
Motorola
http://www.mot.com/multimedia/
Zenith
http://www.zenith.com
Lyonnaise Des Eaux to Offer Voice, Digital Video, & Data Service Package
Lyonnaise Des Eaux has announced that it will introduce a pilot program on December 8 in Annecy, France consisting of telephony, digital video and Internet access service. Internet access service, which will feature Motorola cable modems, will be offered at FRF 200 a month. Telephony service will be offered at a cost that is at least 10% lower than the present telco provided service.
Lyonnaise Cable is France's largest cable operator, passing 2.3 million homes.
Lyonnaise Des Eaux
http://www.tvcable.fr
Motorola
http://www.mot.com/multimedia/
Harmonic Lightwaves Announces Availability of MCNS QAM Modulator
Harmonic Lightwaves has announced the availability of its MCNS QAM modulator known as QMM 8000.
Harmonic Lightwaves
http://www.harmonic-lightwaves.com
Northern Cable Launches Educational LAN using Terayon Cable Modems
Northern Cable has announced that it is providing LAN services to the Sudbury District Roman Catholic School Board in Sudbury, Ontario using cable modems provided by Terayon. The educational LAN features connectivity between 60 school board facilities.
Sudbury District Roman Catholic School Board
http://www.scdsb.edu.on.ca/
Terayon
http://www.terayon.com
Scientific Atlanta Introduces Free Reverse Path Configuration Consulting Service
Scientific Atlanta has introduced a reverse path configuration consulting service that is free to cable operators. S-A engineers will visit plant sites and use software simulation to determine the optimum configuration for planned interactive services and make recommendations.
S-A utilizes software that will:
- predict the bit error performance of QPSK and QAM digital signals in the presence of noise
- allow modeling of laser transfer and noise parameters
- allow selection of signal parameters
Scientific Atlanta
http://www.sciatl.com
Guam and Philippines Operators to Connect Cable Systems
The Guam-Philippines Cable Limited Partnership is planning to deploy a 3,600 km undersea cable system that will support a 5 Gbps connection between Tanguisson, Guam and Nasugbu, Batangas, Philippines. The system, which can be upgradeable to 20 Gbps will use WDM, optical amps and synchronous digital hierarchy technology. In addition to connecting the two cities, the system will provide connectivity to the China-US Cable Network and the Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe cable system [SEA-ME-WE-3].
The new system will be constructed, operated, administered and maintained by a partnership group including Tyco Submarine Systems, Kanematsu, KDD-Submarine Cable Systems, and Guam-Philippines Cable.
The project has been in the planning stage since 1989. A 1994 announcement indicated that the network would be complete by the end of 1996. This week's announcement has completion of the project scheduled for April 1999.
Cox to Use IDT's Internet Backbone for Northeastern U.S. Services
Cox Communications has announced that it will use IDT's DS-3 Internet backbone to relay data from cable headends in the Northeast region of the U.S.
Cox Communications
http://www.cox.com
IDT
http://www.idt.com
PC Magazine Awards @Home for Technical Excellence
PC Magazine Recognized @Home with a Technical Excellence award at the publisher's 14th annual ceremony. PC selected @Home because its staff was impressed with the company's network design, ability to deliver a unique multimedia experience and the service's potential to impact the Internet.
In a separate announcement, @Home reported that TCI is now offering the service in Castro Valley. Existing data customers are being asked to pay $75 to exchange their Hybrid and Intel cable modems for Motorola units. New subscribers will pay $150 for installation. The monthly @Home service is being offered at $39.95 a month.
The Castro Valley system claims more than 13,000 video subscribers.
@Home, which has more than 26,000 subscribers in the U.S. and Canada will not be exhibiting at the upcoming Western Show. In a recent interview with Multichannel News' Leslie Ellis, @Home's CEO, Tom Jermoluk stated that the company is known by every affiliate and there is no longer a need to generate leads. Road Runner is expected to be excited about the company's absence since it is planning to launch an aggressive campaign to sign operators outside the Time Warner franchise.
@Home
http://www.home.net
PC Magazine
http://www.pcmag.com
Motorola
http://www.mot.com/multimedia/
MultiChannel News - 12/1/97
[@Home's Jermoluk Offers More than Speed - Interview with Leslie Ellis]
http://www.multichannel.com/b2.htm
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