Business users yearn for cable
[More cable modem delays...]
Vendors are rolling out client-side wares, but service
still doesn't cut it
By Carmen Nobel, PC Week Online
05.18.98
zdnet.com
As more corporations eye cable modems as
a high-speed, low-cost alternative for
Internet access, they're getting a collective
cold shoulder from service providers.
Networking vendors, such as Cisco
Systems Inc., and consumer electronics
companies Sony Electronics Inc. and
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. are poised to
release new cable modem products, while
PC industry players continue to push the technology as a way to connect
to the Internet.
The holdup for widespread corporate usage, it seems, rests with the service provider.
"Typically, it seems that offering business dedicated services has been an
afterthought," said Michael Harris, an analyst at Kinetic Strategies Inc.,
in Phoenix. "And if they're offering such services now, it's on an
operator-by-operator basis."
Indeed, some users looking for service are finding providers less than cooperative.
"MediaOne [Corp.] has a pilot program for businesses, but they don't
offer business service here," said Steve Durst, a network consultant with
an Air Force research lab.
Durst wants cable modem service for his five-computer network in
Arlington, Mass.
"Meanwhile, they don't want me to have a network behind my cable modem," he said. "A salesman told me it's like stealing cable--they have a network operation that can monitor [usage], and if the company detects that I'm violating the customer-service agreement, they'll just cut me off."
Annoyed with MediaOne, Durst is considering ISDN service, even though it is slower and more expensive.
Currently, 200,000 users in the United States subscribe to cable modem
service. That number is expected to rise to more than 1 million by the
end of 1999, according to data from Kinetic Strategies. Of these, an
estimated 10 percent will be corporate users.
Cisco's forthcoming cable modem, which is expected to be released by
September, is currently undergoing compatibility tests at Cable
Television Laboratories Inc., in Boulder, according to sources close to
Cisco, based in San Jose, Calif.
Samsung and Sony Electronics plan to have standards-compliant
products on retail shelves by late summer.
Cable forum
Meanwhile, a number of PC industry leaders, including 3Com Corp.,
Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp., Lucent Technologies Inc. and Sun
Microsystems Inc., have each pumped tens of thousands of dollars into
a new group called The Cable Broadband Forum, which is designed to
promote cable usage among businesses.
On the services front, cable providers, such as Time Warner Inc.'s
RoadRunner and At Home Corp., currently offer business packages that
allow users to connect cable modems to LANs. Those programs,
however, are available in only a few pockets of the country.
And with service providers focused on consumers, who pay a national
average of about $37 a month for a 1.5M-bps connection, pricing and
quality for business offerings, when available, vary widely.
In addition, users are frustrated that hooking a cable modem up to a hub via a proxy server or small router is technically simple, but cable operators that offer only residential pricing won't let users do that.
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