Cable Ops Go 2-Way
By Peter Lambert
January 29, 1998 1:36pm
Inter@ctive Week
zdii.com
Seven of North America's largest cable operators in July will join Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable in deploying Explorer 2000 two-way, Internet-capable, digital set-top boxes from Scientific-Atlanta Inc.
The deals appear to underscore the cable operators' insistence that no one vendor will dominate broadband, digital, interactive TV.
Last month, Comcast, Cox Communications Inc. and Time Warner joined Tele-Communications Inc. in a $4.5 billion order of set-tops from S-A (www.sciatl.com) competitor Next-Level Systems Inc. Deployments of those boxes aren't expected before 1999.
Last week, Adelphia Communications Inc., Cox, Marcus Cable Inc. and U S West Media Group's MediaOne in the U.S.; and Cogeco Cable, Le Groupe Videotron Ltee and Rogers Cablesystems Ltd. in Canada said they will deploy Explorer.
Over the past two years, Time Warner agreed to purchase 1 million Explorers while Comcast agreed to buy 300,000 of the set-tops.
The box features digital video decoding, a downloadable PowerTV Inc. operating system, a high-speed Internet Protocol channel, Ethernet output, HyperText Markup Language and JavaScript interfaces, and a Sun Microsystems Inc. MicroSparc processor.
Source: Inter@ctive Week |
