Louisville, Colorado, June 17, 1998—Cable Television Laboratories, Inc., (CableLabs®) and the California Cable Television Association (CCTA) have issued a request for proposal (RFP) for participation in the CableNET '98 demonstration.

CableNET '98, an integrated demonstration showing the power of the cable industry's hybrid fiber/coaxial (HFC) network, wil be on display exclusively at the Western Cable Show in Annaheim, California, December 2-4. Additionally there is an extensive presence on the World Wide Web at www.cablenet.org

CableNET '98 seeks to build upon the cable industry's aggressive efforts to obtain interoperable advanced digital set-top boes under the OpenCable™ initiative. It is expected that interoperable cable modem manufacturers and companies participating in PacketCable™ will participate as well.

The deadline for filing responses on CableNET '98 participation is July 16.

The CableNET demonstration maintains an educational approach fostered by CableLabs and the CCTA. CableNET '98 will focus on the services and applications that cable operators may deliver to consumers via HFC telecommunications networks.

The CableNET '98 RFP specifically seeks services, applications, hardware and software that already are either current cable/computer industry technology, under market trial, or are no more than one year away from deployment.

Areas of interest include new methods of digitizing video, video-on-demand, interoperable advanced digital set-top boxes, such as those being produced under the OpenCable™ initiative; high-speed data services using DOCSIS modems, including on-line information services and multimedia services terminating on computers. Also of interest are Internet applications, either in software or hardware form; delivery of telephone service, either wireline or wireless, and cable-commuting; voice over Internet Protocol, and video-conferencing using Internet Protocol.

Other areas that organizers will consider are new Internet appliances; interactive services that terminate on television monitors including, but not limited to, near video-on-demand and video-on-demand; network management, advanced (digital) television, HDTV and electronic commerce and transactions.

In addition, any contenet offering, service application or Internet appliance that offers access, 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' on-going Technology Tracking project (www.cablelabs.com/techtrans.html). This project makes emerging technologies available to CableLabs members on an on-going basis beyond the CableNET '98 exhibit at the Western Show.

CCTA is the industry's largest state cable television association with over 350 members serving over 6 million customers. Western Show information may be accessed through the Association's Web-site at www.cct-assn.org.

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.

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.