Louisville, Colorado, November 23, 1999—Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. (CableLabs®) successfully completed the third round of PacketCable™ interoperability testing events this month, and is finalizing preparations for the upcoming CableNET®�99 demonstration to be showcased at the Western Show at the Los Angeles Convention Center, December 15 to 17.

PacketCable is a CableLabs-led initiative aimed at developing interoperable interface specifications for delivering advanced, real-time multimedia services over two-way cable plant. Built on top of the industry�s highly successful cable modem infrastructure, PacketCable networks will use Internet protocol (IP) technology to enable a wide range of multimedia services, such as IP telephony, multimedia conferencing, interactive gaming, and general multimedia applications.

A group of 18 participating vendors tested a variety of equipment that has been developed according to PacketCable and DOCSIS (known as CableLabs® Certified™ cable modems) specifications. The equipment included 10 multimedia terminal adapters (MTAs), 4 call management servers (CMSs), 3 cable modem termination systems (CMTSs), 2 PSTN (public switched telephone network) gateways, 1 provisioning system, and a record keeping system.

In total, well over 100 experiments were performed successfully across dozens of different combinations of vendor equipment. Experiments included basic voice calls, multi-codec calls, feature demonstrations, device provisioning, and billing output. The majority of the testing took place at CableLabs� facilities in Louisville, with supplementary testing conducted remotely across 5 different test locations.

"The level of product maturity and interoperability demonstrated in our labs was quite impressive," noted Ed Miller, Director of PacketCable. "It is clear that PacketCable-based products are well on the way to becoming a market reality."

Successful interoperation at the October test cycle, and the subsequent integration week for the Western Show, was a requirement for companies that will be participating in the upcoming PacketCable demonstration at CableNET. One of the highlights of the demonstration will be a group of phone booths from which visitors can place phone calls, free of charge, to anywhere in the continental United States using PacketCable technology. Each of the booths will use a different combination of vendors� products to route calls across the on-site cable network and out to the PSTN for completion.

"With 11 PacketCable 1.0 specifications nearing the interim mark, we�re quite satisfied that so many vendors have come to our labs with such a wide variety of capabilities and features," said Tom Thompson, Interoperability Program Leader. "It will be exciting to see many of these products in action at the Western Show."

Participants in this round of testing included: Arris Interactive; AP Engines; Broadcom; Cisco Systems; Clarent; CSG Systems; Ericsson; General Instrument; Texas Instruments; Lucent Technologies; Motorola; NetSpeak; RadVision, Inc.; SamSung; Telcordia; Telogy, a Texas Instrument Corporation; Toshiba; and Zarak Systems Corporation. These companies bring the total to 28 vendors who have participated in PacketCable interoperability events so far this year. The next testing cycle is scheduled for next February, and will expand the range of vendors, equipment and protocols being tested, with continued focus on end-to-end system testing.

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 and www.ebif.tv.

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.