Louisville, Colorado, August 12, 1998—Cable Television Laboratories Inc.(CableLabs®) announced today that it will host a Year 2000 (Y2K) Vendor Symposium in Denver, Colorado, on September 29–30, 1998. This conference is open to all qualified cable operators, regardless of their membership status with CableLabs.

The symposium is an important part of CableLabs' overall Y2K effort on behalf of its member companies. Selected cable industry vendors, including representatives from addressable set-top box manufacturers, billing systems and headend components, will spend two days presenting their plans for becoming Y2K compliant.

In addition to the formal presentations, the vendors will discuss their testing and certification plans. Non-member cable operators will be asked to pay a one-time fee to attend this symposium, to attend any other CableLabs Y2K meetings, and for access to the Y2K web-site.

CableLabs expects that the vendors and cable operators will work together to verify that the systems will pass the Y2K tests, especially in those areas where multiple vendors' products and services must successfully work together. For example, addressable systems and billing systems need to work together not only separately, but also together to fulfill pay-per-view orders. One of the symposium's benefits to vendors and cable operators, will be the opportunity to make arrangements to conduct these interoperability tests.

"The Year 2000 problem is one that faces the entire cable industry, not just CableLabs' member companies. That's why we're making this conference open to all qualified cable operators," said Doug Semon, director of network operations at CableLabs.

Patrick Vertovec, director of the Year 2000 Program Office at Jones Intercable, chairs the Y2K Working Group. He said "This is an ideal opportunity for vendors and operators to meet face-to-face to discuss Y2K issues and plans. We're looking forward to hosting this important event."

A schedule of events soon will be posted on CableLabs' web-site, http://www.cablelabs.com. Cable operators interested in participating should contact Doug Semon at 303-661-9100 for further information.

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.

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