Louisville, Colorado, May 4, 2001—Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. (CableLabs®) and its members are launching their CableB2B™ program, an initiative to create specifications supporting the automation of regular, day-to-day business communication between cable system operators and Internet content providers, including Application Service Providers (ASPs) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

CableB2B specifications will cover portions of the business interface between cable operators and providers of services deliverable over the cable plant, through cable modems, advanced set-top boxes, and other technologies. CableLabs is developing the specifications with a large vendor group, which includes industry leaders in automated provisioning, network management, billing and customer care.

CableLabs' members have been working with other service providers to increase the range of services available on their cable networks and to their customers. "We have been upgrading our broadband network to deliver advanced services and provide more choices for our customers," said Susan Marshall, senior vice president of Advanced Broadband Services for AT&T Broadband, who leads the project for the CableLabs' Board of Directors. "CableB2B supports our efforts by simplifying the cooperative delivery of advanced services with other service providers, where and when it makes solid business sense."

"Time Warner Cable is actively developing its network to support multiple ISPs. Eventually, we hope that CableB2B will provide the specifications for uniformly linking Time Warner Cable's back-office management and billing systems to the ISP," said Jim Chiddix, Senior Vice President and CTO for Time Warner Cable.

"CableLabs' goal for the CableB2B program is to improve our members' ability to tap into the Internet innovation engine as represented by the new services being delivered or proposed by ISPs and ASPs. Like our successful Go2BroadbandSM initiative, the CableB2B specification aims to provide an industry-wide solution that will offer ISPs and ASPs a uniform mechanism for connecting to cable networks for key business transactions," said David Reed, Senior Vice President and CTO for CableLabs.

"The CableB2B specification will cover such business-to-business transactions as service availability, provisioning and performance management, billing, and customer care. Taking the business and technical requirements provided by our member companies, we plan on defining the precise message sequence and format for each of these categories," said Perry O'Neil, CableB2B Director for CableLabs.

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.