Louisville, Colorado, September 3, 1997—To help attain interoperable cable modems, Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. (CableLabs®) has contracted with cable modem inventor Rouzbeh Yassini, CEO of YAS Corporation. Yassini is the former CEO of LANCity, which was among the first companies to develop and commercialize cable modems.

He will direct the testing and verification stage of the MCNS/DOCSIS standardization process.

"Because interoperability testing and verification is critical to cable modem mass deployment, CableLabs has sought Yassini's advice as the technology's developer to employ his proven strategies and tactics in the direction of this standardization process," explains Dr. Richard R. Green, CableLabs president and CEO.

CableLabs is managing the three stages of the Data-Over-Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) under the leadership of Bob Cruickshank, director of CableLabs Digital Network Technologies. Stage one, the radio frequency (RF) specification, concluded in March 1997, enables suppliers to begin building interoperable, high-speed cable modems plus modem headend systems.

Stage two, testing and verification, overseen by Yassini, is expected to be finished by March 1998. The final stage, commercialization, follows with an anticipated year-end 1998 retail availability date.

More than 35 vendors are participating in the testing and verification stage led by Yassini. This team's objective is to achieve modem products that conform to the DOCSIS specification. Toward this end, stage two tasks consist of demonstrating interoperable subsystems (September 1997), then interoperable prototypes (December 1997 at the Western Show), and finally interoperable production systems.

In addition to CableLabs and Yassini, the DOCSIS team members consist of representatives from Comcast, MediaOne, Cox Communications, Rogers Cablesystems Limited, Time Warner Cable, Tele-Communications Inc., and other CableLabs member companies. In addition, the following have provided engineers and other on-site support to the project: Shaw Communications, Broadcom, Scientific-Atlanta, and Toshiba.

Yassini is well-known in the cable television industry for his pioneering efforts in the development of high-speed cable modems as founder of LANCity Corporation. As LANCity's CEO, Yassini grew the corporation's product bookings from $1 million by the first quarter of 1993 to $42 million by the third quarter of 1996.

When LANCity was acquired by Bay Networks in September 1996, Yassini served as vice president and general manager of the data-over-cable division's Internet and telecom business group in charge of worldwide product development, marketing, and management. Early in 1997, Yassini departed Bay Networks to establish YAS Corporation, dedicated to telecommunications global services for data, voice, and video.

YAS Corporation provides strategic direction, system integration, and financing for voice, data, and video telecommunications services focusing on Internet and Intranet markets. The company's three distinct operating divisions-CEO consulting, AVC financial, and SI solutions-are jointly dedicated to rapid deployment of high-performance, high-speed, next-generation telecommunications consumer products.

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 additional web sites at www.cablenet.org.

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