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Cable Access to the Internet May Be Getting Closer

A new cable modem standard may jump-start broadband to the home.

By Brian McWilliams, PCWorld   

Four major electronics companies yesterday announced that they will build cable modems according to the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification, or DOCSIS. Hayes, Samsung, and Thomson said they%squotll soon be shipping cable modems for use on the subscriber end, while Cisco Systems announced it will be making equipment for use in the cable system operator%squots central offices.

By making low-cost, high-speed cable modems available at retail, these four companies will take a load off cable operators who, to date, have been buying equipment and giving or renting it to subscribers. According to Cisco%squots director of broadband marketing, Bob Schack, this change might be enough to jump-start the deployment of cable Net access nationwide.

%dquotThey really weren%squott going to do that full-bore until they could see an open standard situation whereby they would not have to buy the subscriber modems themselves,%dquot he reports. %dquotThe cable operators would like to compete on the same level with all other providers... consumers buy their own modems and connect to the service provider who has services that are attractive enough for them to continue to pay money for.%dquot

Telechoice analyst Beth Gage agrees that having a standard for cable modems and bringing consumer electronics firms into the game will help drive down the costs and maybe free up some capital that cable operators can invest in updating their wiring. But Gage says fully modernizing the cable infrastructure will take months, if not years.

Still, the support for standards and the involvement of high-profile companies like Cisco and Hayes may goose the rollout of other high-speed access like ADSL.

%dquotI think the cable modem threat is going to emerge early next year to the telcos. We%squotll then begin to see some more competitive reactions...,%dquot she says. %dquotSo, in conjunction with these cable modem rollouts and developments, we will begin to see more high-speed Internet or high-speed consumer packages come out from the Bell Atlantics and the US Wests too next year.%dquot

No word yet on pricing or availability on those new, standards-compliant cable modems.