SOHOware Broadband Internet Gateway Brings Home Networking Business Strategies Into Focus for Service Providers
Residential Gateway Offers Greater Depth to MSO-Customer Relationships; Designed With Flexibility For Easy Customization And Operation
SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 4, 2000-- While residential gateway products are key elements of home networking solutions for consumers, they are also viewed as defining MSO business strategies as MSOs compete for a larger share of the high-speed Internet access market.
There is no mystery to what residential gateways do - they route multimedia traffic from a cable modem or ADSL service to multiple destinations in the home. But there are a number of different vendor solutions available and their differences say a lot about MSO visions of today's broadband market, where it's going and how it fits in to long-term relationships with customers.
``Working with MSOs has enhanced our perception of home networking business strategies,' said Andy Chang, vice president, business development at SOHOware Inc. (formerly NDC Communications), which markets the SOHOware© brand of home networking products. ``The convenience-engineered SOHOware brand is synonymous with consumer-friendly features, and we have added a new layer to our business model that requires being MSO-friendly at the same time.'
As a result, the SOHOware Broadband Internet Gateway (BIG), announced late last year, could well be the first product conceptually designed by MSOs for the broadband market. Among its MSO-oriented benefits are:
Isolation of in-home multiple user IP traffic from the MSO
backbone,
Firewall Internet security,
Plug-and-play installation, and
Value-added features including parental control over web
surfing practices of minors, support for up to 4 IP addresses and
a gaming zone which allows easy access to multi-player online
games/services.
In tailoring its products to the MSO business, Chang says the driving forces are creation of new revenue opportunities, controlling costs commensurate with revenues, initial customer satisfaction, building customer loyalty (and repeat business) by offering a complete product line, and bundling SOHOware products with MSO services for custom solutions.
The SOHOware Broadband Internet Gateway is a natural fit for the home networking market and it makes sense for MSOs to offer this type of broadband networking,`` said Karuna Uppal, senior analyst, consumer market convergence, The Yankee Group. 'SOHOware's experience in the networking market, along with their MSO partnership business model, will be beneficial to them in this rapidly growing broadband space.`` |
