Louisville, Colo., May 28, 1996—Cable Television Laboratories, Inc., (CableLabs®) and the California Cable Television Association (CCTA) have issued a request for proposal (RFP) for CableNET '96, an integrated demonstration showing the power of the cable industry's hybrid fiber/coaxial (HFC) network that will be on display at the Western Cable Show in Anaheim, California, December 11-13.

The deadline for RFP responses is July 3 to be sent to CableLabs.

The CableNET demonstration maintains an educational approach fostered by CableLabs and the CCTA. CableNET '96 will focus on the services and applications that may be delivered to consumers via the HFC telecommunications networks.

The RFP specifically seeks applications, hardware and software that already are either under technology or market trial, or are no more than one year away from deployment. Areas of interest include telephone services over cable -- wireline or wireless, high-speed data services, including on-line information services and multimedia services terminating on computers; Internet access; Internet applications, either in software or hardware form.

Other areas that will be considered are new Internet devices; interactive services which terminate on television monitors, including but not limited to near video on demand and video on demand; multimedia, audio, text, and graphics terminate on a computer screen; telecommuting, advanced television and electronic commerce and transactions.

In addition, any content offering or service application that is accessible or that is being designed to be accessible via a broadband connection to the World Wide Web should also consider participating in CableLabs' ongoing Web incubator project. This project would make applications available on an ongoing basis beyond the CableNET '96 exhibit at the Western Show; at temporary and long-term demonstrations, technology trials or deployments that access CableLabs' Web incubator site and the capabilities it is designed to showcase.

CableLabs is a research and development consortium of cable television system operators representing more than 85% of the cable subscribers in the United States, 70% of the subscribers in Canada, and between five and 10% of cable subscribers in Mexico. CableLabs plans and funds research and development projects that will help cable companies take advantage of future opportunities and meet future challenges in the telecommunications industry. It also transfers relevant technologies to member companies and to the industry. In addition, CableLabs acts as a clearinghouse to provide information on current and prospective technological developments that are of interest to the cable industry.

CCTA is the industry's largest state cable television association with over 350 members serving over 6 million customers.

About CableLabs: Cable Television Laboratories (www.cablelabs.com) was founded in 1988 by members of the cable television industry. A non-profit research and development consortium, CableLabs delivers innovations that enable cable operators to be the providers of choice in their markets. Cable operators from around the world are members. CableLabs maintains web sites at www.cablelabs.com; www.packetcable.com; www.cablemodem.com; www.cablenet.org, and www.opencable.com.

CableLabs® is a registered trademark of Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. Other CableLabs marks are listed at http://www.cablelabs.com/certqual/trademarks. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.