Broadband Bob Report


01/24/02


1. More Modems Certified in December
2. FCC Allowed to Regulate Pole Attachment Fees
3. FTC Approves New ISPs to Offer Data Over AOL/TW
4. Comcast & Cox to Offer Residential Security Serives
5. Cox Migrating Subs; Mediacom Teams with AT&T
6. Core & Jones Cyber to Offer Integrated Solution
7. Motorola's Modem & STB Receive EuroDOCSIS Cert
8. Korea Thrunet, Cogeco & Rogers Report Subs
9. Dutch Operator Extends Order with Com21
10. NTL Considering Opening Access to ISPs
11. SolarWinds Introduces Network Management Software
12. Eastern Connecticut Using Alopa's Provisioning
13. Knology Offering Incanta's Music Service
14. AT&T Taps Thomson for "up to" 1 Million RCA Modems
15. Cox to Deploy Cisco's Gear for Park Place Hotels

1. More Modems Certified in December
CableLabs certified seven more DOCSIS 1.1 modems including technology submitted by Ambit, Arris, Ericsson, S-A, Texas Instruments, Tellabs and Toshiba. TI and Toshiba modems were certified in the previous wave. In this wave, Toshiba had a new modem certified and a modem recertified. CableLabs has already qualified headends submitted by Arris, Cadant, and most recently, Cisco.

Twelve DOCSIS 1.0 cable modems were either certified or recertified in the last 1.0 wave. The vendors included 3Com, Ambit, Cisco, D-Link, Hitron, Motorola, Panasonic, Scientific Atlanta, Thomson Multimedia, and Toshiba. To date, 193 1.0 modems have been certified and 26 headends qualified. The latest 1.0 qualifications were awarded to Cisco and Pacific Broadband.

CableLabs
http://www.cablelabs.com

http://www.cablemodem.com


2. FCC Allowed to Regulate Pole Attachment Fees
The U.S. Supreme Court has overruled the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to allow the FCC to regulate fees that utility companies can charge for pole attachments. Before, regulations applied to video services but not to pipes that ran data services. As a result, utes were charging cable ISPs as much as $38 per pole per year for attachments, up from $7.

FCC
http://www.fcc.gov

US Supreme Court
http://www.supremecourtus.gov


3. FTC Approves New ISPs to Offer Data Over AOL/TW
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission [FTC] has approved four ISPs to offer services over AOL/TW's networks. Inter.net has been cleared to offer services over the provider's systems nationwide. New York Connect can offer services in the New York City area; Internet Junction in Tampa Bay and Central Florida; and STIC.net in San Antonio, Houston, and Austin, Texas. As part of a stipulation to the AOL and Time Warner merger, the FTC has required that the cable operator allow at least three rival ISPs to offer data services over its networks.

Time Warner
http://www.timewarner.com


4. Comcast & Cox to Offer Residential Security Serives
Security Broadband has announced that it will offer residential security services over systems operated by Comcast and Cox. The SafeVillage service will feature two-way audio and real-time video. Customers will be able to view their homes remotely and interact with family members at home via a web site. The first commercial launches are scheduled for this quarter in Sarasota, Florida and Las Vegas.

Security Broadband
http://www.atsecurity.net

Comcast
http://www.comcast.com

Cox
http://www.cox.com


5. Cox Migrating Subs; Mediacom Teams with AT&T
Over the past month, Comcast and Cox have been moving data subscribers from @Home's network to their own respective networks. Volumes of Comcast subs reported transition problems similar to the AT&T subs - little to no connectivity and little to no access to customer support to resolve the problem. Cox plans to have all of its subs moved by the end of the month. The provider is sending its subscribers a conversion kit through UPS. The kit includes a user manual, installation CD, and coupon booklets.

Adelphia has already converted its 4,800 @Home subs to its PowerLink service.

Mediacom, an operator that has had two ISP partners go belly-up, has said that it has signed a multi-year deal with AT&T to provide IP backbone and Internet support services.

6. Core & Jones Cyber to Offer Integrated Solution
Core Networks has teamed with Jones Cyber Solutions to offer an integrated network and subscriber management solution that combines Core's CoreOS provisioning and management system and Jones' Intelligent Customer Support System. The combined technology provides management support for voice, video and data services. Telstra Clear is currently using the combined solution in New Zealand.

In a separate announcement, Core has said that two former @Home Solutions' affiliates, Antietam Cable and Advanced Cable, have chosen the company's provisioning system. Antietam passes 42,600 homes in Washington County, Maryland and Advanced Cable passes 80,000 homes in Coral Springs and Weston, Florida.

Core Networks
http://www.corenetworks.com

Jones Cyber Solutions
http://www.jonescyber.com


7. Motorola's Modem & STB Receive EuroDOCSIS Cert
Motorola has announced that its SB4200E cable modem and its DVi5000 set top with an internal modem have each been EuroDOCSIS certified by tComLabs. The SB4200E includes a micro-processor that is 66% faster than previous Motorola models. The DVi5000 is the first set top to be qualified by tComLabs. The technology support video on demand, high-speed data, IP telephony, and a platform for PVR, streaming media, IP and video telephony, file transfer, session oriented gaming, and HDTV.

To date, Motorola leads the cable modem market, shipping more than 6.5 million modems.

In other Motorola news, the company has said that PentaCom will use its networking equipment to offer voice, video and data over a 27-city Moscow region network that will pass more than one million homes. Motorola will supply its CG4500E residential gateway, BSR 1000 headend, SB4000 DOCSIS and SB4101 EuroDOCSIS modems, OmniStar optical platform video encryption system and CT-1900 cable television decoder.

Motorola
http://www.motorola.com/broadband

PentaCom
http://www.pentacom.ru


8. Korea Thrunet, Cogeco & Rogers Report Subs
Korea Thrunet ended the year with 1,314,248 data subs, up 46,732 for the quarter. The provider has teamed with Roonets to offer high-speed data to hotels. Rogers ended the quarter with 479,000 data subs, up 56,000 over the quarter. Cogeco has reported ending the quarter with 124,289 data subs [Ontario: 102,392, Quebec: 21,897], up 16,351 for the quarter.


9. Dutch Operator Extends Order with Com21
Com21 has said that it has extended its supplier agreement with N.V. Delta Nutsbedrijven to provide cable modems and headend equipment for the provider's ZeelandNet service in the Netherlands. The operator already has 21,000 cable modems and 30 headends deployed in the southern province of the country.

In Com21's quarterly report, the vendor has announced that its cable modem shipments declined 23% over the quarter to 149,000 units. The company shipped 88,000 ATM modems, 61,000 DOCSIS modems and 116 headends. To date, Com21 has shipped over 1.8 million cable modems and over 1,800 headends.

Com21
http://www.com21.com


10. NTL Considering Opening Access to ISPs
NTL has said that it is considering opening up its broadband network to allow other ISPs to offer data services. The provider is currently in talks with AOL and Freeserve. NTL is trying works its way out of $17 billion in debt.

NTL
http://www.ntl.co.uk


11. SolarWinds Introduces Network Management Software
SolarWinds has introduced two new software products including Orion Network Performance Monitor and CATV Engineer's Edition Toolset. The performance monitor provides web access to the health and status of nodes including upstream and downstream statistics as well as signal to noise ratio for every modem on the network. The technology monitors percentage utilization, total bytes transferred, network latency, code word errors, and the use of illegal modems on the system.

The CATV Engineer's Edition Toolset contains more than 37 network discover, network diagnostic and network management tools such as IP Network Browser discovery, Advanced Bandwidth Monitor, MIB Address Management, tools for manipulating configuration files for Cisco routers, and security tools.

The performance monitor is priced by the node. Support for 100 nodes goes for $1,975. An unlimited license is $7,975. The toolset, with support of up to 5,000 nodes, is $1,495.

SolarWinds
http://www.solarwinds.net


12. Eastern Connecticut Using Alopa's Provisioning
After moving its @Home Solution subs to its own network, Eastern Connecticut Cable Television will be using Alopa Networks' MetaServ Provisioning Platform to manage subscribers.

Alopa Networks
http://www.alopa.com


13. Knology Offering Incanta's Music Service
Incanta has announced that Knology is offering Incanta's music broadcasting service that provides users with 80 genre specific virtual audio stations that contain more than 100,000 songs. Upon initial deployment, Incanta reports that 15% of Knology's high-speed customers in the serviced area signed up for the content and eleven percent of that bunch logged in daily, using the service for more than an hour a day, on average. Knology
http://www.knology.com

Incanta
http://www.incanta.com


14. AT&T Taps Thomson for "up to" 1 Million RCA Modems
Thomson Multimedia has announced that AT&T has signed an agreement that calls for Thomson to supply the provider with up to one million DOCSIS cable modems over the next two years. Thomson's RCA cable modems feature USB and Ethernet connectivity, installation with start up LED sequencing, built in diagnostics, data on/off button, support for up to 32 PCs, and home network management software.

AT&T
http://www.att.com/broadband

Thomson Multimedia
http://www.thomson-multimedia.com


15. Cox to Deploy Cisco's Gear for Park Place Hotels
Cox Business Services Hospitality Network will deploy Cisco's equipment to enable Park Place Entertainment properties to offer cable modem connectivity in 20,000 hotel rooms across the U.S. Park Place properties include many well known Las Vegas hotels such as Bally's, Caesars, Paris, and Flamingo. Other properties are located in New Jersey, Nevada, and Indiana. The network rollout is scheduled to be completed in 18 months.

Cox Communications
http://www.cox.com

Cisco Systems
http://www.cisco.com

Park Place Entertainment
http://www.parkplace.com




© 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

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