Elizabeth-
article from a few months ago re Time Warner digital rollout:
Time Warner Set to Test Digital in Austin
By CHARLES PAIKERT
Time Warner Cable is getting ready to join the digital dance.
The long-awaited foray into digital by the cable industry's
second-largest operator will begin in mid-June in Austin, Texas, with
the installation of several-hundred advanced-digital set-top boxes in
the homes of local employees for field-testing.
After an evaluation of the terminals and digital-headend equipment, the
243,000-subscriber Austin system will launch commercially, probably
before the end of the year, MSO spokesman Michael Luftman said, although
that timetable is very tentative.
Time Warner will use Scientific-Atlanta Inc.'s Explorer 2000 advanced
set-tops in the test. The company recently doubled its Explorer order to
1.1 million units.
Luftman said the Explorer boxes would be the "first of the
second-generation" boxes to be deployed in the industry. The platform,
which had been dubbed "Pegasus" internally by Time Warner (but which
won't be marketed under that name), features two-way interactive
capability, an Ethernet port and additional chip capacity that increases
memory, processing power and software load.
What had been called Pegasus is now part of an industrywide platform for
interoperable set-tops called OpenCable.
Luftman said the "maximum incremental" charge to subscribers for the
digital box and programming would be approximately $10 per month.
Monthly fees for expanded-basic cable at the system currently start at
$29.
Subscribers will initially receive about 60 new channels, he said, with
20 more to be added later. Luftman said the MSO wasn't ready to discuss
what programming would be added, nor how it will be marketed.
The Austin system will be upgraded to 750 megahertz by the end of the
year, Luftman said. Approximately 70 percent of Time Warner customers in
Austin currently receive advanced-analog service, which has a 79-channel
capacity, according to Lidia Agraz, director of public affairs for the
system.
Luftman said Time Warner would use its own programming feed for its
digital boxes in large systems, which will be uplinked from Home Box
Office's facilities in Hauppauge, N.Y. That digital feed, he said, will
be made available to other cable operators. The technology vendors and
transponder for the feed will be announced later in the year, Luftman
added.
Pioneer New Media Technologies is also a key supplier to Time Warner,
with its "Voyager" digital set-top line, as is Toshiba America Consumer
Products.
Time Warner also plans to use Tele-Communications Inc.'s Headend in the
Sky digital feed for smaller systems, Luftman added.
The Austin launch was no surprise, as it was considered one of the
worst-kept secrets in industry circles.
Time Warner's progress to date -- not unlike that of other MSOs that are
deploying digital-video services -- hasn't been without some delays,
executives have said. Commercial deployments originally scheduled for
March have slipped, but when the MSO is confident about its readiness
for commercial launches, it will move at a heady pace, with simultaneous
launches in several of Time Warner's systems, executives have said.
Part of the delay stems from the fact that the original Pegasus
architecture was hammered out two years ago, and swift technology
advances in chips and software since then triggered the need to do a
quick re-examination and to remap some of the electronics under the
hoods of the new set-tops.
The silver lining to the delay is a more muscular product, said James
Chiddix, chief technical officer for Time Warner Cable, in a recent
interview.
Time Warner is the latest large MSO to go digital. TCI, the nation's
largest cable operator, has been the most aggressive, having already
placed close to 200,000 boxes providing its HITS digital programming in
systems throughout the country.
Cox Communications Inc. has rolled out digital systems in five markets,
including Orange County, Calif. And just two weeks ago, MediaOne, which
has been cautious about digital tiers, put its toe into the digital
waters in suburban Detroit. |
