Intel, Microsoft, cable giants to promote cable modems
By Jim Davis
Staff Writer, CNET NEWS.COM
May 3, 1998, 7:00 a.m. PT
news.com
Intel and Microsoft, which recently formed a group
touting high-speed Internet access through the use
of DSL (digital subscriber line) technology, are set
to join forces tomorrow with companies such as
Tele-Communications, Incorporated and Time
Warner to promote even faster Internet access
through cable service providers.
Computer and cable industry heavyweights will
form the Cable Broadband Forum (CBF), a
non-profit corporation that will work to "increase
public awareness" of cable technologies. Initially the
group will focus on cable modems, and later digital
TV set-top boxes.
"Our objective is to raise awareness that [Internet
service via cable companies] is in the market today
and not a developing technology," said Tom Cullen,
vice president of Internet services for MediaOne
and chairman of the CBF. The CBF said that there
already 200,000 customers with high-speed Net
access from cable operators, and that revenue to
operators will triple by the end of 1998, based on
figures from market research firm Kinetic
Strategies.
In January, Intel, Microsoft, Compaq, and a
consortium of telephone providers detailed a plan
for installing another high-speed Net access
technology, DSL, through the "Universal ADSL
Working Group (UAWG). (Compaq is not
currently a member of the CBF).
Intel and Microsoft's endorsement of Internet
services over cable as well as via DSL technology
is merely pragmatic. Internet access is a key factor
that is spurring computer sales, and both companies
want to make multi-megabit access to the Internet
possible in order to keep sales rolling.
However, the
easy-to-install version
of DSL that Intel and
Microsoft are hoping
for isn't ready yet.
Cable vendors, by
contrast, have basically
ironed out the
technological standards
needed to make the
various pieces of
equipment speak with
each other--a key
factor that will enable
consumers to one day
purchase equipment at
a lower cost than
currently possible.
"Microsoft and Intel are relatively agnostic today
about whether someone's connection is over
coaxial cable or copper," Cullen acknowledged.
But Cullen thinks that that over time, cable will
come to be viewed as the preferred platform for
high-speed access because it could offer higher
access speeds than competing DSL technologies.
Using a cable modem, a customer could download
data at a maximum of 30 mbps (megabits per
second). Although the speed slows depending on
how many subscribers are using the service
concurrently, it will remain faster than the 1.5-mbps
pace promised by the easy-to-install DSL "Lite," as
it is called. And, even at that rate, users would
download data around 30 times faster than can be
delivered through 56-kbps modem technology.
But while cable access technology is available in a
growing number of markets, it is not available in all
regions. Part of the CBF's goal is to conduct an
"education program is to tell people what our
deployment plans are," Cullen notes.
Also, cable operators are going to have to invest
millions over the next few years to upgrade their
systems to be able to carry two-way Internet
traffic. Although the telephone giants face their own
investment requirements, cable companies may
have to invest more and may not have the same
access to capital, according to analysts. |
