Broadband Week Direct - Daily News 10/2/00

Today's report from Web Editor Susan Rush

• Don't Fall Into The Broadband Divide
• Nortel Inks $1.4B Deal
• TW Cable Gets A Jump On Installs
• Broadband Briefs

Don't Fall Into The Broadband Divide

Internet connections, including high-speed access, are on pace to reach 75 percent of U.S. households by 2005, but despite the rapid growth, some 50 million adults could be left out in the "technological" cold, according to market research firm, Gartner Group. Policy makers in Washington D.C. have been mulling over this problem for months, but no one is quite sure what role the government should play in bridging the digital divide that currently exists between lower income families and wealthier ones.

This morning, Gartner CEO Michael Fleisher appealed to Congress to take a more active role to boost household Internet access. His suggestions included: tax credits to business that provide home Internet access to employees and development of federal programs that bring access to the home, not just public locations such as libraries.

Fleisher encouraged policy makers to act because in addition to closing the gap for dial-up access, the second phase of the digital divide is fast approaching - the broadband digital divide. "We may finally master Internet access in every home, but a new digital divide will gape before us if broadband access costs an additional $40 per month per household. This will be the equivalent of having the moderate and upper classes in IMAX theaters while the underprivileged are still watching silent movies," Fleisher told legislators.

Fleisher's findings are based on a new report from the Gartner Group, "Digital Divide and American Society Report."

Nortel Inks $1.4B Deal

Network consulting and integration services is on its way to becoming a $33 billion industry by 2004, according to research firm IDC, and Nortel Networks has no intention of missing out on its piece of the pie. The fiber-optic equipment maker has inked a deal worth $1.4 billion to manage build out and operation of Cable & Wireless' new voice over IP network.

Nortel will plan, design, implement and operate C&W's VoIP Internet backbone network, which will span Europe and North America. The network will be based on Nortel's Networks Succession Solutions, a system already being used by AT&T Corp., Telstra, France Telecom and SBC Communications, according to Nortel.

TW Cable Gets A Jump On Installs

Decreasing truck rolls, while increasing subscribers is a goal of most broadband service providers. In an effort to make broadband an easy proposition for its cable modem service customers, Time Warner Cable has purchased one million licenses of BroadJump, Inc.'s Virtual Truck Installer. The self-installation software often negates the need for a technician to drive to a customer's home to get high-speed Internet services up and running. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

For a little over a year now, Time Warner has been using BroadJump's software for its Road Runner installations, and has been happy with the results. "We have seen increased installation numbers, decreased costs and satisfied customers," says Bo Couglin, vice president of Road Runner Operations, Time Warner Cable. "Purchasing additional licenses of Virtual Truck Installer will ensure we continue to meet the growing demand for our cable modem service." To date, Time Warner has about 4 million residential broadband subscribers, and with the pending AOL merger, the deal could help facilitate AOL offering its broadband Internet services over TW's cable systems.

Broadband Briefs:

Lucent Technologies lands a contract with Dreamline to supply the ISP with its dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) system to build a high-speed optical Internet network in Korea.
iBEAM Broadcasting Corp. and Williams Communications Vyvx Services will bundle their services to provide content providers a combined solution that supports both streaming media and traditional video transmission requirements.
Redback Networks, Copper Mountain Networks, Micromuse, Astracon and Vitria Technology join Emperative, Inc.'s Broadband Service Provisioning Lab. The group's goal is to automate service delivery by completing interoperability testing between various systems.
Oakwood Worldwide tabs ReFlex Communications, Inc. to provide high-speed Internet access and services to about 20,000 of its apartment units in the United States.
Ceragon Networks will deploy its broadband wireless system, FiberAir, in FirstMark's nationwide broadband network in Spain. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
NTS Communications selects Copper Mountain's CopperEdge 200 DSL concentrator to provision its new residential and business DSL service. NTS plans to roll out service in eight Southwestern markets, including cities in Texas and New Mexico.
Siros Networks Corp. secures close to $10 million of initial equity funding from venture capital firms. Siros is developing wireless broadband network infrastructure.
Satellite communications provider Globecomm Systems Inc. wins a contract to bring digital television to BellSouth Corp.'s customers in the Southeast. Globecomm will design, build and commission two television uplink Earth stations in Georgia to facilitate the services.