Louisville, Colorado, September 29, 1997—Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. (CableLabs®) and its members have established a project aimed at identifying and qualifying suppliers and products available for providing telephone calls, videoconferencing, and other packet voice and video services over cable networks and the Internet.

The services would be delivered using the basic Internet Protocol (IP) technology that is used to send data via the Internet.

Comcast Vice President Strategic Planning Mark Coblitz is chairing the effort on behalf of the CableLabs Executive Committee. He has scheduled meetings in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, for late October. Companies interested in presenting information to this group during those meetings should contact David Reed at CableLabs, 303-661-9100, or d.reed@cablelabs.com.

A letter outlining the initiative was sent to about two dozen supplier companies in mid-September. The technology being addressed is known as IP voice and video services.

CableLabs and its members intend to find a vendor or vendors and work closely with them to develop IP voice and video for consumers and businesses within the next nine to 12 months, Coblitz said. "It is CableLabs' desire to find best-in-class vendors to provide one or more of the required components in the system during the development stage," Coblitz added.

Once the proof of concept has been established, CableLabs will reopen the process to any interested vendors. Because this technology is still in the development stage, this project will not result in an approved list of vendors, nor will there be purchasing recommendations. CableLabs members will make individual selections of vendors with whom to proceed.

CableLabs members sponsoring this effort include Comcast, Cox Communications, MediaOne, Rogers Cablesystems Limited, Tele-Communications Inc., Time Warner, and Le Groupe Videotron.

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.