CableLabs® Goes Business-to-Business with G2B

Editor’s Note: In this issue, we highlight the Go2BroadbandSM initiative, a service of CableLabs®, which is creating an Internet-based e-commerce tool to assist computer manufacturers and retail partners in selling cable, and cable-related services. It supports the deployment of DOCSIS modems as well as legacy systems. Participating companies benefit from being part of an authorized, industry-wide site that will reach most of the cable industry with one query. The site will provide service and pricing information directly from the cable company to the sales team. www.Go2Broadband.com is the Web site that will enable this business-to-business e-commerce activity. Benefits to cable operators/consumer include: information brought directly from the cable company to retailer sales teams, which, in turn, offers convenience to both retailers and consumers. The e-commerce site also will become a platform for delivering a portfolio of services from cable operators. For further information, please contact g2b@cablelabs.com.

The next logical step along the interoperable cable modem path at CableLabs is a business-to-business effort, called Go2Broadband or G2B. This e-commerce effort links retailers and PC manufacturers to a one-stop shop for information about cable modem service availability.

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On the supplier side, there are several dozen CableLabs® Certified™ cable modems in the production queue. On the cable operator side, millions of homes are marketable for high-speed data services, meaning that two-way plant is activated, marketing materials ready, and headend equipment installed.

That leaves one remaining item: getting cable modems into people’s homes.

Cable’s top operators added about 20,000 new subscribers each week in 1999. Telcos already are bearing down on the same target market with DSL service. With G2B, cable can maintain, and likely widen, its considerable deployment lead.

A quick review: CableLabs® Certified™ cable modems work regardless of where a subscriber lives. So retail and direct sales can join cable’s traditional, monthly lease model for in-home equipment dissemination.

CableLabs started the project last fall to facilitate the sales of certified cable modems and services. It is capable of addressing serviceability for the entire cable industry, including homes that are marketable for cable-delivered, high-speed data.

"The cable industry wanted a vehicle to speed up the sales of cable modems," says David Reed, Senior VP of Strategic Planning at CableLabs. "G2B is a marketing tool for the cable industry that starts with high-speed data services, but eventually will incorporate other cable industry offers as well."

"We thought of ways to accomplish this and the future expansions. Given a heavy Web presence, the Internet explosion, and the acceptance of commerce over the Internet, we decide to launch an e-commerce application," explained J.P. Singh, Project Director, E-Commerce Applications for CableLabs. Beta tests are underway.

In its role as operator of the G2B site, CableLabs aims to route retailer and PC manufacturer queries about service availability and pricing—"can I sell modems into this address? At what price? Do you have multiple offers?"—to cable operators and provide real-time responses of the cable operators back to the retailers.

Singh said the G2B system is a real-time message router accepting queries from retailers who want to know about cable modem service availability, and cable companies who have high-speed services to sell. G2B identifies appropriate cable compan(ies) to forward the query to and responds back to the retailer with cable operator offers, all in real-time. It can handle thousands of messages simultaneously.

"Let’s say you are an every day customer who goes to Compaq’s site to buy a PC," Singh explains. While talking to the Compaq service rep, a query is sent to the G2B site to ascertain whether high-speed data service is available to that consumer. If so, Compaq tells the consumer the service is available; hopefully, the consumer agrees to have the modem included with the PC. The operator within the consumer’s service footprint is alerted that a Compaq customer just bought a cable-modem-equipped PC so that the operator can provision the high-speed data service to the consumer.

The payoff for the cable industry is important: Cable operators already have a lead over DSL sales. Go2Broadband will offer a vehicle to widen the gap. Additionally, it will become a vehicle for other offers from the industry.