New group to tout cable bandwidth
Alliance seeks to counter interest in phone-based services
By David Bowermaster
MSNBC
May 3 - Leaders of the cable, computer and networking industries will announce a major new alliance Monday to trumpet the advantages of cable networks for delivering high-speed online services. The Cable Broadband Forum, which will be unveiled at the National Cable Television Association convention in Atlanta, aims to counter growing interest in broadband technologies being developed by the phone companies.
"THE CABLE INDUSTRY and its hardware and software partners believe that cable is the best information and entertainment delivery system in the world today," CBF Chairman and MediaOne Vice President of Internet services Tom Cullen said in a statement. "We want Internet users everywhere to know of its availability and to understand its benefits."
CBF members include cable operators Tele-Communications Inc., Time Warner and MediaOne; cable Internet services @Home and RoadRunner; computer companies Microsoft, Intel, Sun Microsystems and Cisco; and equipment suppliers General Instrument, Motorola and Thomson Consumer Electronics. (Microsoft is a partner in the joint venture that operates MSNBC.)
The CBF will start with roughly 40 member companies in all, each of which has paid a membership fee of $10,000. Organizers hope to sign up more participants in the weeks ahead.
Discussions about the alliance began last December at the Western Cable Show in Anaheim, Calif. They accelerated in January, when a phone industry consortium announced it is working with Microsoft, Intel and Compaq to accelerate the deployment of ADSL, a new modem technology that can zip data across traditional phone lines at 1.5 megabits per second, or around 25 times faster than today's top dial-up rate of 56 kbps.
"We clearly saw the press associated with that [announcement], and much of what they were talking about were in many cases future technology," Cullen told MSNBC. "We have something that is in market today, people are buying it and it's a good value."
Today there are roughly 200,000 cable modem subscribers in the United States and Canada, according to Kinetic Strategies Inc. They pay roughly $40 to $50 per month to take advantage of cable's 1.5 mbps to 3 mbps data rates. The industry hopes to reach 1 million subscribers by the end of 1998. Most phone companies will not begin offering ADSL services until later this year.
"From a public awareness perspective, one could argue the DSL camp has been far more effective about getting their message out there," says Michael Harris, president of Kinetic Strategies. "There's a gap there between actual rollouts and market perception that [the cable industry] is trying to correct."
Though many companies in the CBF, such as Microsoft, Intel and Cisco, are also working to advance ADSL, few observers see a conflict of interest. "[Computer companies] are last-mile agnostic as far as how the PC gets connected to the Internet," says Harris.
The CBF will serve a public relations function to promote awareness of cable Internet services but it will not do any advertising, according to Cullen. The CBF will also conduct market research for the industry.
READY TO TAKE YOUR ORDER
The move to raise the profile of cable-based Internet services is a strategic shift for the cable industry. Up to now, cable companies have soft-peddled their Internet offerings to avoid whipping up demand that they might not be able to meet.
But Cullen says that because cable companies have made significant progress upgrading their plant - roughly 10 million homes are now capable of getting cable Internet service - and because standardized cable modems are starting to hit retail outlets, the industry feels it is time to tell consumers about its new services.
"This is a new technology, and the historical relationship between a consumer and a cable company has only been in the delivery of video services," says Cullen.
Robert Davenport, senior vice president and chief operating officer of TCI.NET, will serve as CBF president. Other board members will include Mark Coblitz, vice president of strategic planning for Comcast, Tim Evard, president of RoadRunner, and Dean Gilbert, senior vice president and general manager of @Home.
Discussions about the alliance began last December at the Western Cable Show in Anaheim, Calif. They accelerated in January, when a phone industry consortium announced it is working with Microsoft, Intel and Compaq to accelerate the deployment of ADSL, a new modem technology that can zip data across traditional phone lines at 1.5 megabits per second, or around 25 times faster than today's top dial-up rate of 56 kbps.
"We clearly saw the press associated with that [announcement], and much of what they were talking about were in many cases future technology," Cullen told MSNBC. "We have something that is in market today, people are buying it and it's a good value."
Today there are roughly 200,000 cable modem subscribers in the United States and Canada, according to Kinetic Strategies Inc. They pay roughly $40 to $50 per month to take advantage of cable's 1.5 mbps to 3 mbps data rates. The industry hopes to reach 1 million subscribers by the end of 1998. Most phone companies will not begin offering ADSL services until later this year.
"From a public awareness perspective, one could argue the DSL camp has been far more effective about getting their message out there," says Michael Harris, president of Kinetic Strategies. "There's a gap there between actual rollouts and market perception that [the cable industry] is trying to correct."
Though many companies in the CBF, such as Microsoft, Intel and Cisco, are also working to advance ADSL, few observers see a conflict of interest. "[Computer companies] are last-mile agnostic as far as how the PC gets connected to the Internet," says Harris.
The CBF will serve a public relations function to promote awareness of cable Internet services but it will not do any advertising, according to Cullen. The CBF will also conduct market research for the industry.
READY TO TAKE YOUR ORDER
The move to raise the profile of cable-based Internet services is a strategic shift for the cable industry. Up to now, cable companies have soft-peddled their Internet offerings to avoid whipping up demand that they might not be able to meet.
But Cullen says that because cable companies have made significant progress upgrading their plant - roughly 10 million homes are now capable of getting cable Internet service - and because standardized cable modems are starting to hit retail outlets, the industry feels it is time to tell consumers about its new services.
"This is a new technology, and the historical relationship between a consumer and a cable company has only been in the delivery of video services," says Cullen.
Robert Davenport, senior vice president and chief operating officer of TCI.NET, will serve as CBF president. Other board members will include Mark Coblitz, vice president of strategic planning for Comcast, Tim Evard, president of RoadRunner, and Dean Gilbert, senior vice president and general manager of @Home.
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