A quick glance at Cable DataCom News gives a clue to Motorola's problems:
cabledatacomnews.com
DOCSIS MODEM SHIPMENTS SURGE IN Q1
But Product Component Shortages Squeeze Vendors
Seeking to Meet Increasing Market Demand
MAY 01, 2000
DOCSIS cable modem shipments surged in the first quarter of 2000, and for the first time, eclipsed shipments of proprietary products, according to CABLE DATACOM NEWS publisher Kinetic Strategies Inc. In total, North American DOCSIS modem shipments reached 570,000 units in Q1, up from 305,000 in the fourth quarter of 1999. Worldwide DOCSIS shipments surpassed 700,000 units, compared to approximately 675,000 proprietary modem shipments.
However, DOCSIS vendors have become victims of their own success, as shortages of key components, such as tuners and flash memory, are forcing vendors to scramble to meet shipment commitments.
Motorola Inc.'s acquisition of General Instrument has paid off handsomely in the DOCSIS market, as the company shipped a staggering 275,000 GI-developed DOCSIS modems worldwide in Q1, compared to only 215,000 of its industry-leading proprietary CyberSURFR cable modems. Motorola said 61 percent of its DOCSIS modems were shipped into the North American market, compared to 58 percent for CyberSURFR. Toshiba had a strong first quarter, shipping 122,000 DOCSIS units, up from 65,000 in Q4 1999, and Thomson's DOCSIS shipments reached 100,000 units in Q1. 3Com's sales gains did not keep pace with competitors, reaching 86,000 units in Q1.
DOCSIS shipment increases in Q1 were driven by strong cable modem subscriber gains from Excite@Home and Road Runner. In total, North American MSOs now count more than 2.5 million installed cable modem customers and are installing an average of 7,000 new customers per day.
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And another release I missed earlier, this time from CableLabs:
cablelabs.com
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PacketCable? Completes 1st Round of Interoperability Testing for 2000, Assesses Initial Compliance Test Plans
Louisville, Colorado, April 17, 2000 ? Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. (CableLabs©) has successfully completed the first round of PacketCable? interoperability testing of the new year, and is well under way in its preparation for the compliance testing program that will be in operation by year-end.
PacketCable is a CableLabs-led initiative aimed at developing interoperable interface specifications for delivering advanced, real-time multimedia services over two-way cable plant. Built on top of the industry?s highly successful cable modem infrastructure, PacketCable networks will use Internet protocol (IP) technology to enable a wide range of multimedia services, such as IP telephony, multimedia conferencing, interactive gaming, and general multimedia applications.
During the week of March 6, a group of 17 participating vendors tested a variety of equipment that has been developed according to PacketCable and DOCSIS (known as CableLabs© Certified? cable modems) specifications. While this event was largely focused on assessing the test environment and executing the initial compliance test plans (CTPs) being developed by the industry, there were a number of new PacketCable network equipment vendor participants.
CableLabs? PacketCable Testing Program keyed on functionality testing last year. Now with 11 specifications released as ?interim,? CableLabs is working with PacketCable vendors to create a robust set of test plans that will measure product conformance to those specifications. "Similar to the cable modem initiative, these CTPs will be used to measure vendor product conformance to the PacketCable specifications in order to determine which products are compliant," stated Ed Miller, Director of PacketCable. "Cable operators have asked vendors to achieve compliance status in preparation for wide-scale deployment next year."
To date, several hundred evaluations have been performed successfully across dozens of different combinations of vendor equipment. Evaluations included basic voice calls, multi-codec calls, feature demonstrations, device provisioning, and billing output. In this most recent round of testing, 5 different test platforms were used to assess protocol, voice quality, and the test cases themselves.
"This was a good trial run for our test cases," said Tom Thompson, Project Director for PacketCable Testing. "We will continue with functional testing moving forward, but now it?s time to dig much deeper into the specific protocols. We are confident that our test plans are on target and will provide an effective measure for specification compliance."
Participants in this round of testing included: Netergy Networks (formerly known as 8x8); Agilent; Ameritec; AP Engines; Broadcom; Cisco Systems; Catapult Communications; Com21; Ericsson; Motorola; NetSpeak; Philips; RadVision, Inc.; SamSung; Texas Instruments; Toshiba; and Zarak Systems Corporation. These companies bring the total number of vendors who have participated in PacketCable interoperability events to over 30. The next testing cycle is scheduled for May, and will expand the range of vendors, equipment and protocols being tested, with continued focus on shaping the compliance testing program.
CableLabs is a research and development consortium of cable television system operators representing North and South America. CableLabs plans and funds research and development projects that will help cable companies take advantage of future opportunities and meet future challenges in the cable television industry. It also transfers relevant technologies to member companies and to the industry.
In addition, CableLabs acts as a clearinghouse to provide information on current and prospective technological developments that are of interest to the cable industry. CableLabs maintains web sites at www.cablelabs.com; www.packetcable.com; www.cablemodem.com; www.cablenet.org; and www.opencable.com.
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