James, CMCSK,Charter and RCNC are all new customers. Here are some good articles.
Tele-Communications Inc. will continue to aggressively upgrade, as it did last year. The MSO expects to finish 1999 with a little more than one-half of its 200,000 miles in the 550-megahertz to 870-MHz range and two-way capable, said Tony Werner, TCI's executive vice president of engineering and technical operations.
This year, TCI will nearly double its workload and expense, with plans to upgrade more than 4 million homes passed. By year-end, about 50 percent of TCI's plant will be upgraded, with the majority being two-way. And by the end of 2000, 75 percent of TCI's plant will be upgraded, while 85 percent will be two-way, Werner added.
TCI anticipates completing about 300,000 to 500,000 homes passed per month, launching new data and phone markets and expanding its high-speed offering in existing markets.
"This year, you'll see some markets start flirting with 15 [percent to] 20 percent penetration. You'll start seeing phone penetration," Werner said.
Time Warner Cable ended 1998 with a little more than 70 percent of its 225,000 miles of plant upgraded to two-way readiness. The MSO expects to upgrade at the same rate this year, completing about 35,000 to 40,000 miles and finishing 1999 at about 85 percent readiness, said Jim Chiddix, its chief technical officer.
"We can certainly see the homestretch from the final turn. But we're still smoking along at full speed," Chiddix added.
Cox Communications Inc. also plans to upgrade at a similar pace to last year's. It brought 9,500 of its 57,000 miles up to 750 MHz last year, and the MSO expects to upgrade another 9,500 miles this year.
But the operator does not bring all of its plant to 750 MHz and two-way readiness at the same time. While about 57 percent of its plant was at 750 MHz at the end of last year, only 47 percent was two-way, according to Alex Best, Cox's senior vice president of engineering.
"In some years gone by, we took them to 750 [MHz], but we didn't activate the two-way part. [Now], we're catching up with that," he said.
By the end of 1999, nearly 67 percent of Cox's plant should be two-way-capable, while nearly 74 percent will be 750 MHz.
multichannel.com
The movement to internal modems is really going to heat up with Libit and INTC fueling the fire. By fall MCNS DOCSIS internal modem standards should be in place.
multichannel.com
Tim
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