Selected by AT&T BIS for Wide-Scale Deployment
ATLANTA, Oct. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. (NYSE: SFA)
announced a letter of intent for AT&T Broadband & Internet Services (AT&T BIS)
to purchase Scientific-Atlanta's bdr(TM) baseband digital reverse products, a
revolutionary family of products that offers a dramatic increase in return-
path capacity while capitalizing on efficiencies in the network to reduce
costs. The bdr baseband digital reverse products will be utilized by AT&T BIS
to meet the company's broadband needs in several key markets. Scientific-
Atlanta's bdr baseband digital reverse products are designed to handle the
significant traffic increases expected as AT&T BIS deploys future multimedia
and interactive services.
"As broadband users start to interact with more and more multimedia
services, cable networks have to be able to carry several signals to each
consumer-and back again. Scientific-Atlanta has the only IP-based, digital
interactive network because we realized, early on, how important the reverse
path would be to our customers," said Paul Connolly, vice president of
marketing and network architectures in Scientific-Atlanta's Transmission
Network Systems sector. "AT&T BIS has embraced broadband as the best vehicle
for delivering services to its customers, and we are pleased that they have
selected bdr for its advanced utilization of the reverse path."
"AT&T is committed to providing our customers with high-speed, always-on
broadband service. A two-way, real-time network is crucial in today's dynamic
marketplace, in order to keep businesses competitive," said Tony Werner, Chief
Technology Officer, AT&T BIS. "Scientific-Atlanta has developed a
differentiated technology in its bdr baseband digital reverse products. We
expect that bdr will increase our hybrid-fiber coaxial networks' efficiency by
several fold."
Digital reverse solves the upstream bandwidth crunch
To deliver new services such as multimedia, Internet access and telephony,
and to increase subscriber penetration, operators must seek ways to increase
forward and reverse bandwidth, limit the number of users served by a given
node and allow more traffic on a single fiber -- often within the context of
retaining existing architectures.
Scientific-Atlanta's bdr products can address the bandwidth and
architectural issues head-on through time division multiplexing (TDM) and
digital reverse lasers at the node and hub, which will enable operators to
carry more upstream information on a single fiber. It is anticipated that
operators will be able to serve up to four times more subscribers with one
fiber and transmit signals over longer distances.
Baseband digital reverse technology also makes the network easier to
manage, with opportunities for digital signal processing (DSP) functions such
as filtering, noise suppression, and data manipulation to enhance performance.
Because the digital signal is relatively immune to the effects of noise and
temperature, it offers more reliable performance over long distances. It also
enables greater bandwidth exploitation, which is critical for delivery of two-
way multimedia traffic. The added capacity, enabled through TDM, allows
operators to serve a greater number of subscribers on a single fiber.
Lowering costs
Scientific-Atlanta's bdr products build on the latest advances in digital
fiber optics and high-capacity data transmission currently being deployed in
many of today's most advanced telecommunications networks. By capitalizing on
proven telecom and datacom technology, Scientific-Atlanta can pass along to
customers the benefits of rapidly declining prices and increasing
functionality, similar to that seen with "Moore's Law" in the semiconductor
field.
For nearly 50 years Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. has been a revolutionary
leader in the cable industry, wiring the world with "end-to-end" communication
solutions. Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. (http://www.sciatl.com ) is a leading
supplier of broadband communications systems, satellite-based video, voice and
data communications networks, and worldwide customer service and support.
"Forward-looking statements," as defined in the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995, may be included in this news release. A
variety of factors could cause Scientific-Atlanta's actual results to differ
from the anticipated results expressed in such forward-looking statements.
Investors are referred to Scientific-Atlanta's Cautionary Statements (Exhibit
99 to the Company's most recent Form 10-K), which statements are incorporated
into this news release by reference.
bdr is a trademark of Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. All other company names or
products may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
companies.
SOURCE Scientific-Atlanta, Inc.
-0- 10/25/1999
/EDITORS' ADVISORY: Please visit the Scientific-Atlanta Web page at
sciatl.com (News Room section) if you are interested in viewing
additional information about Scientific-Atlanta, Inc./
/CONTACT: Kerri Dimke of Scientific-Atlanta, 770-236-6306, or
kerri.dimke@sciatl.com , or Gregg Echols, of Ketchum/Crescent Public
Relations, 404-287-2000, ext. 116, or gechols@crescomm.com , for Scientific-
Atlanta/
/Web site: sciatl.com /
(SFA) |
