|
White Papers & Reports |
||||
Broadband
Week's Library is an invaluable resource for networking
professionals who build, manage and sell broadband applications
and services. White papers, analyst reports, vendor information
and more can be found at www.bbwlibrary.com. |
|
Tuesday, October 1, 2002 |
|
• AT&T Broadband deploys BigBand solution • WorldGate shuffles staff, makes cuts • Harmonic tumbles on revised outlook • Companies respond to OCAP RFP • Tollgrade Communications to cut 47 jobs • SCTE seeks ’03 Expo workshop proposals • Qwest president in e-mail: "I will take the fall" for deal
AT&T Broadband deploys BigBand solution BigBand Networks Inc. has launched a self-healing redundancy solution for digital cable services and has landed AT&T Broadband as the first customer for the new product. The product is designed to increase cable network reliability by enabling an alternative headend to immediately restore digital video to subscribers if the primary headend fails, BigBand said. "It is increasingly important that the cable industry avoid service interruptions, given the expansion of revenue-generating programming provided," said Richard Peske, BigBand's vice president of product marketing. The product leverages Gigabit Ethernet to improve system reliability, he said. The company claims its self-healing redundancy product is the first of its kind on the market. AT&T Broadband is the first customer to deploy the redundancy product. The cabler will deploy the solution in its Atlanta system, which passes more than 1.2 million homes. Financial terms were not disclosed. In August, BigBand announced its Broadband Multimedia-Service Router had reached a milestone, serving more than 1.5 million digital cable subscribers in North America. The company has deployment deals for its BMR with Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Blue Ridge Communications and Rogers Cable. BigBand's technology is designed to boost bandwidth efficiency by grooming standard-definition television (SDTV) and high-definition TV (HDTV) in the same channel. The BMR platform also is designed to handle new services such as targeted digital advertising and video-on-demand over standard video and data interfaces such as DVB-ASI, Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet. When connected with BigBand's headend redundancy solution, BMRs accessing digital programming overcome outages by switching to remote backup sources via high-speed transport. Related stories:
WorldGate shuffles staff, makes cuts To ensure WorldGate has enough cash to fund itself through at least the next four quarters, the company is making some changes. WorldGate said it is taking steps to get its priorities in line. First, the company will transfer some of its employees to TVGateway LLC, its joint venture with Adelphia Communications Corp., Charter Communications Inc., Comcast Cable Communications Inc. and Cox Communications Inc. The transfer also will encompass some of the functions WorldGate has been providing to TVGateway. The move will put the responsibility on TVGateway to pay for certain expenses and take some of the burden off WorldGate. The company said it is taking these steps in response to the decreased capital spending in the telecom and cable industries. WorldGate said it remains committed to the TVGateway venture. While some employees will move over to TVGateway, WorldGate plans to further reduce its staff by 50 employees. The company is making the cuts as it works to streamline its business. To maximize operating expenses, WorldGate plans to defer some "lower priority projects" and shift its internal reporting structures, the company said. WorldGate also has named Joel Boyarski chief financial officer. He is leaving his post as vice president and general manager of the company's TVGateway activities to assume the position. Boyarski is replacing James Agnello who is leaving the company to become a CFO of a publicly held company in New York. Related stories:
Juniper Networks will tackle the small- to mid-sized MSO sector
with a new “pizza box” cable modem termination system (CMTS) dubbed
the “G1.”
Harmonic tumbles on revised outlook Wall Street is frowning on Harmonic Inc.'s stock, following a revised third-quarter outlook that will come in below previous expectations. The company expects to post Q3 sales of between $37 million and $39 million, citing a significant slowdown in orders from its domestic cable customers. Its Broadband Access Networks division, which manufacturers fiber optic products for broadband cable networks, is forecasting sales in the range of $13 million to $13.5 million, down from the previous quarter's $23.6 million. Its Convergent Systems division, which manufactures digital headend systems, will post revenue of between $24 million and $25.5 million, down from $32.7 million in the second quarter. Harmonic expects to record a pro forma loss for the third quarter of between 17 cents a share and 22 cents a share. Analysts on average were expecting a loss of 8 cents a share, according to Thomson First Call. As of 12:18 p.m. EDT, Harmonic shares were shedding nearly 29 percent of their value, trading at $1.25. The company's shares have traded as low as $1.10 and as high as $15.13 in the last 52 weeks.
Less than two months after putting the call out, 14 companies have responded to CableLabs' OpenCable Application Platform (OCAP) request for proposal for implementations. OCAP, which is largely based on Europe's MHP platform, is a specification tied to middleware that eventually will populate OpenCable-based digital set-top boxes and other devices. OCAP version 1.0, published in January, includes an execution engine (EE) based on Java technology, while OCAP 2.0, published in May, calls for both an EE and a presentation engine (PE). CableLabs said it put the shout out in early August to solicit industry implementations of OCAP to hasten the ability of cable operators to launch new services made possible by OCAP. "Most of the responding companies have extensive experience with the European MHP specification," said Don Dulchinos, vice president of Advanced Platforms and Services. The 14 companies responding to the RFP include ADB, Alticast, Canal+ Technologies, Espial, Liberate Technologies, Microsoft, OpenTV, Panasonic, Philips, Pioneer, Samsung, Tata Elxi, Vidiom Systems and Zentek/DigiSoft. Many of the suppliers have implementation target dates of as early as the first quarter 2003. "Most of the developers appear to have roadmaps for porting the software to various hardware platforms, so we expect to see some OCAP implementations in the labs for testing within the next several months," CableLabs CEO Dick Green said in a statement. Related story:
Tollgrade Communications to cut 47 jobs
Tollgrade Communications Inc., citing further spending cutbacks
by telecommunications clients, yesterday said it will eliminate
47 jobs, warned that third-quarter earnings would fall on the
lower end of already reduced forecasts and said Chief Executive
Officer Chris Allison would seek another pay cut. Related stories:
SCTE seeks ’03 Expo workshop proposals The Society
of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) said it is accepting
proposals for technical workshops that will be held during the
2003 Cable-Tec Expo, slated for May 11-14 in Philadelphia, Pa.
Qwest president in e-mail: "I will take the fall" for deal: House panel is puzzled by the message
The president of Qwest
Communications International Inc. agreed to "take the
fall" for a potentially risky deal the company pushed to
finalize in June 2000 in order to meet Wall Street expectations,
according to documents released Monday by congressional investigators.
Related story:
• OpenTV shutters office OpenTV has closed its regional office in Naperville, Ill. The interactive software provider expects the closure to result in a savings of $8.8 million annually. The Naperville office concentrated on research and development related to OpenTV's Device Mosaic technology. This function will be transferred to the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. • Com21 moves to Nasdaq SmallCap Com21 Inc.'s stock has moved to the Nasdaq SmallCap Market, effective Oct. 1. The company requested to be moved from the Nasdaq National Market after it received a notice from Nasdaq that its stock did not meet the minimum $1.00 bid price requirement. The company has until Dec. 3 to comply with the $1.00 bid price requirement. The stock will continue to trade under the symbol CMTO. • Eastern Broadband Telecom taps Nuera Taiwan's Eastern Broadband Telecom has selected Nuera Communications Inc. to provide its Orca RDT-8v Voice-over-IP broadband access gateway to enable the delivery of voice services over cable. Financial terms were not disclosed. • Digital Broadband buys Convergent Technologies Digital Broadband Networks Inc. will fork over $5 million for a majority interest in Convergent Technologies Inc. The transaction will be funded by cash and Digital Broadband's preferred stock. CTI provides an integrated virtual phone and unified communications service. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
|
|
Broadband Announcements |
|
Check out Broadband Week's People on the Move page. To find out who's coming and going in the broadband industry, click here. To submit company hiring news, e-mail Broadband Week's People Page.
|
|
Broadband Week Resource Links |
|
Broadband Web Directory |