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Daily news and top headlines for broadband communications engineering and design professionals
Charter cites false and misleading ads in lawsuit
August 28, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsIn the latest showdown over use of the term "shared network," Charter Communications Inc. is challenging Southwestern Bell Telephone's "Cable Modem Slowdown" ads. In a lawsuit filed in a Missouri District Court, Charter alleges SBT has perpetrated a false advertising campaign. Charter says the Bell is violating the federal Lanham Act, regarding truth in advertising, and says it violates Missour...
ECB certifies seven cable modems in fifth wave
August 28, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsThe Euro-DOCSIS Certification Board certified seven cable modems in its fifth Euro-DOCSIS 1.0 certification wave. It also qualified one CMTS for Euro-DOCSIS 1.0, and announced it was partnering with tComLabs and preparing for 1.1 certification starting in October. The agency says it has certified a total of 25 cable modems from 17 companies and 14 CMTSs from nine companies.
TiVo closes $51.8M private placement
August 28, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsTiVo Inc. closed a terms-heavy private placement of $51.75 million of convertible debt and warrants to accredited investors, it says. The deal includes the $51.75 million in convertible senior notes at a 7 percent interest rate, due in 2006. TiVo says the notes are convertible at any time for common stock at $6.
More news to potentially use
August 28, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsMotorola Inc.'s Broadband Communications Sector will use Lineo's Embedix Digital Media core as its initial Linux operating system software. Motorola will use the software in its DCT-5000 set-top boxes. … Cygnet Technologies Inc. partnered with Protel Services Inc. on a multiyear, multimillion-dollar deal to provide broadband equipment and services to Department of Defense lodging faciliti...
Studies: MMDS gaining ground; fiber to grow slow
August 27, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsDo they need to get a life or what? The number crunchers return with more semi-dire predictions. • The plucky Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Systems sector is gaining ground in the last-mile technology market, albeit with a long way to go, a Yankee Group study says. MMDS Fixed Wireless Set to Become a Piece of the Broadband Puzzle says the fixed-wireless industry picked up industry ...
FTTH rebels elect leaders, vow changes
August 27, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsYikes. Watch for the Fiber-to-the-Home Council, a spunky group of revolutionaries who are, they say, "poised to lead an FTTH revolution" in the telecom and video industries. For starters, it just appointed an executive director, elected its first board and composed its mission statement. Armed with the mission statement, the nonprofit says it can, via committee work, maintain focus and provide ...
Comcast Business hits Detroit
August 27, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsComcast Business Communications has started wiring broadband service to tenants in its first Detroit location, a building on the city's West Fort Street. CBC, a subsidiary of Comcast Corp., launched in February and has been expanding the service into Comcast's cable areas in the mid-Atlantic and Detroit areas.
Teligent lands $117.5 M bid from front-line contender
August 26, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsTeligent put its core business up for bid Friday and already has a taker. Teligent Acquisition Corp., formed recently by an undisclosed group of bidders, will submit the first bid of $117.5 million, a Teligent spokesman says. "This will be the stocking horse bidder," he tells CEDaily. TAC is the initial bidder, and subject to higher ones.
Liberate joins standards effort; files 10-K
August 26, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsLiberate Technologies is the 100th member to join SCTE's standards program, the company says. It also filed its annual report, noting among its risks that it has cash to meet capital needs for more than a year. But if it needs to raise capital and can't, it may not be able to fund its continued operations, it says.
More news to peruse or even use
August 26, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsBidding war topic Hughes Electronics Corp. cut 10 percent of its formerly 7,900-strong U.S. workforce and as a result, says it will take a one-time charge in its third quarter. Company CEO Jack A. Shaw cited the strain of the economic downturn and sluggish economy. … The statisticians are sluffing off — a mere one study says 68 percent of consumers surveyed recognized digital video ...
Excite dunned for $50 M in convertible note payback
August 26, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsIt isn't panicking exactly, but on the heels of public doubt about its ability to survive, ExciteAtHome was dunned today by two holders of its convertible notes who want their $50 million. Excite is disputing the demand. The two holders, investment funds managed by Promethean Investment Group LLC, gave an Aug.
Lucent cuts more jobs, outlines cash sources
August 23, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsLucent Technologies outlined its "headcount reconciliation" in its meeting with analysts yesterday, noting that it was alerting 2,200 "colleagues" of their layoffs that day. In a conference call, the company says its Phase II restructuring means cutting another 15,000 to 20,000 jobs, meaning nearly half its Dec.
More deals and doings
August 23, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | Comments"Neophyte home-networking" users should snap it up. HighSpeed Surfing Inc. says even those novices can use the wireless router it's partnering on with Delta Networks Inc. The two have "pledged" to support the WG 100 by customizing the applications required by cable operators, they say. The WG 100 comes with a 4-port auto sensing 10 or 100 Mbps fast Ethernet switch, and a one uplink push button ...
Cisco switches to two-unit mode
August 23, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsCisco Systems cleaned house, refurbishing its previous three divisions into two — an 11-part engineering unit and a marketing unit. The company also moved execs and lost Kevin Kennedy, its senior VP of its old service provider line. In April 1997, Cisco devised three lines of business — its enterprise, service provider and commercial units — to focus on the growing markets at ...
Undaunted statisticians keep crunching
August 22, 2001 8:00 pm | by Anne Kerven | CommentsThey're back. The diligent number crunchers have churned out yet another spate of surveys. • An attempt to stimulate local services competition had "many nations mandating local loop unbundling," Yankee Group says in The Race to Win the Last Mile: Local Loop Unbundling Around the Globe. Despite varying frameworks for LLU around the world, regulatory agencies are plugging ahead.
