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Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tiger USA who wrote (42042)	6/12/1999 9:37:00 AM
From: J Fieb	Respond to of 50808

CABLE DATACOM NEWS PERSPECTIVES DOCSIS vs. DVB in Europe June 11, 1999 will prove to be a defining date in the fight between DOCSIS and DVB cable modem proponents in Europe. The European Cable Communications Association (ECCA) threw down the gauntlet on May 12, completing a DVB cable modem specification and coordinating an order for up to 500,000 DVB modems from 13 operators over the next 18 months. On June 11, cable modem equipment vendors seeking to bid for this DVB business must submit formal applications to ECCA. If DOCSIS heavyweights, such as Cisco, 3Com and Nortel, do apply for the ECCA tender, DVB advocates can claim victory on the continent. If these DOCSIS players hold firm, Europe better brace itself for a continuing cable modem marketing clash. That said, DOCSIS players that ignore DVB risk being frozen out of a significant part of the European cable modem headend equipment market. With comparable capabilities and pricing, and the lack of significant DSL competition from telcos, many European Operators may favor the DVB standard simply because it is an indigenous solution, even if it takes longer to bring to market. Microsoft Winning Web Browser Battle In the wake of Microsoft's $5 billion investment in AT&T, the battle for set-top software has garnered the spotlight. However, it wasn't too long ago that folks were more interested in whether Microsoft or Netscape would win the desktop Web browser battle. In this fight, Microsoft is cleaning house. Through its Kleiner Perkins connections, @Home originally aligned with Netscape and continues to push Communicator as its preferred browser, although it does offer Internet Explorer too. This is about to change, however. <Picture: Microsoft>By all objective accounts, the performance of Microsoft IE 5.0 crushes that of Netscape Communicator 4.5, a fact that is especially noticeable to broadband users. Smartly, @Home is evaluating plans to make IE 5.0 its preferred browser platform going forward. Of course, with America Online buying Netscape, Microsoft is suddenly looking like an @Home friend rather than foe, particularly in light of its AT&T investment. Microsoft owns 10 percent of @Home rival Road Runner and IE is already the default browser for the service. If @Home comes on board, IE will be the browser of choice for ISPs serving 90 percent of North America's cable modem users.