23 Modems Certified; 5 CMTS Qualified

DOCSIS™ Celebrates 2nd Year of Certifying Modems

Louisville, Colorado, March 29, 2001—Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. (CableLabs®) announced today that it has concluded the largest, and most prolific certification wave of high-speed cable modems and headend gear to date. A total of 23 cable modems and 5 cable modem termination systems (CMTS) received CableLabs' stamp of approval. The equipment certified and/or qualified is part of the Data over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS™) program for version 1.0.

Six new companies—Castlenet, Dakos, Global Teleman, Matsushita, Scientific Atlanta, and Texas Instruments—joined the large list of DOCSIS cable modem equipment suppliers with certified products. Eleven companies—3COM, Askey, Cisco, Elsa, Ericsson, Motorola, Nortel, Powercom, Samsung America, Samsung Electronics, and Terayon—were re-certified for modems that adhere to the DOCSIS specification.

Tellabs' headend equipment was qualified in this wave for the first time. Four companies—Arris, Cisco Systems, Riverstone, and Terayon—had CMTS re-qualified.

These announcements mean that 130 versions of DOCSIS 1.0 cable high-speed data devices have been certified by CableLabs for retail sale. Included in this ever-increasing array of certified cable modems are stand-alone modems with Ethernet and USB ports, and PCI modems, which are built inside personal computers by manufacturers. A total of 22 CMTS have been qualified.

"This amount of certified modems and qualified headend equipment, coupled with acceptance as an international standard, squarely places DOCSIS as a global force in the cable high-speed Internet access market," said Rouzbeh Yassini, executive consultant to CableLabs and DOCSIS project leader.

The certification process begun in January for DOCSIS 1.1 will continue as an ongoing process until a supplier achieves modem certification. Any suppliers that are new to the 1.1 process and that wish to seek certification, will be accepted into the certification wave that will be called Certification Wave 18. That wave, which will accommodate 1.0 and 1.1 product, will start as per the published schedule available at the www.cablemodem.com web site. A total of four discrete certification waves are scheduled for 2001.

There are several major differences between products under DOCSIS 1.0 and DOCSIS 1.1, which builds upon, and is compatible with, DOCSIS 1.0. Chief among these differences is that 1.1 modems have increased capabilities to facilitate delivery of multimedia services, such as voice communications, video telephone calls, multimedia conferencing, telecommuter services, other integrated multimedia applications and interactive games. DOCSIS 1.1 modems form the platform on which the cable industry's PacketCable™ set of services will ride. The PacketCable has begun conducting compliance testing. Its interface specifications are available at www.packetcable.com or www.cablelabs.com.

Certified modems are identifiable by a "CableLabs® Certified™" seal. This seal informs consumers and cable operators that a modem complies with the CableLabs' cable modem specification. It also assures that a modem will work together (interoperate) with qualified CMTSs and with other certified modems that are being deployed worldwide.

There are numerous different regional deployments by cable operators on their broadband networks using cable modem products from the more than one dozen companies producing CableLabs® Certified™ cable modems. The cable industry has created a complete retail certification standard in its data modem program from a standing start four years ago.

A Certification Review Board, comprised of representatives of CableLabs member companies, grants certification status to DOCSIS™-compliant modems, and qualified status to headend equipment, based on lab tests completed by CableLabs as well as on field data.

The qualification process provides the cable operator or broadband service provider with information on how the CMTS will interoperate with multiple vendors' certified cable modems using different silicon.

Qualification is based on the following factors: (1) Vendors provide a signed affidavit affirming that their CMTS meets the published specification and will interoperate with all CableLabs® Certified™ cable modems. (2) The CMTS has exhibited satisfactory performance in various cable operator field trials. (3) The CMTS has passed CableLabs' audit tests in the areas of interoperability, stability, and specification conformance. The qualification program will continue allowing more vendors' CMTS units to be qualified. Qualification does not constitute a CableLabs endorsement or recommendation to purchase. CableLabs member companies may purchase any CMTS they choose.

The DOCSIS effort has achieved widespread cable and vendor consensus on a series of definitions of key interconnection points in a cable data distribution network. It also has achieved North American (by the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers) and international (by the International Telecommunications Union) standardization using key elements of DOCSIS.
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.