Louisville, Colorado, September 27, 2001—The cable industry today—in what is an industry �first"—awarded certification status to DOCSIS™ 1.1 cable modems, adding to the industry�s family of interoperable high-speed devices. The advancements that come with DOCSIS 1.1 are tactically and strategically critical to cable providers.

Two companies, Texas Instruments and Toshiba, achieved certification status from CableLabs® for modems that comply with specifications for DOCSIS 1.1. Two companies, Arris and Cadant, gained qualification status for their DOCSIS 1.1 cable modem termination systems (CMTS). DOCSIS stands for Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification.

The 1.1 modems are compatible with existing DOCSIS 1.0 equipment and will be compatible with modems that will be certified under future versions of DOCSIS, such as the recently announced DOCSIS 2.0.

Strategically, DOCSIS 1.1 opens a technological doorway to augmented revenue streams for cable providers. It does so by enabling the existence of high-speed Internet service tiers, via techniques known as data fragmentation and quality of service (QoS). Those two techniques allow cable providers to deliver high-speed Internet services simultaneously over the same plant - and in a path parallel to - core video services.

And, perhaps most importantly, equipment built to comply with the DOCSIS 1.1 specification becomes the foundation for expanding the list of advanced cable services offered by cable providers, including home networking through the CableLabs CableHome™ project, and packet telephony and multimedia services through the CableLabs PacketCable™ project. Overall, DOCSIS 1.1 enables cable operators to deliver twice the level of functionality while reducing operating costs by half.

�This announcement is a huge step forward for the cable industry in maintaining its competitive leadership in the delivery of broadband services to its customers. Our industry now has new, fully featured, certified, high-speed cable modems and qualified headend equipment. We could not have accomplished this without tremendous cooperation and collaboration among CableLabs, manufacturers, and developers. Our customers will be the real beneficiaries because they will be able to enjoy ever more advanced and affordable broadband technologies in their homes or businesses," said Joseph Collins, Chairman of the CableLabs Board of Directors.

CableLabs President and CEO Dr. Richard R. Green noted that DOCSIS 1.1 builds upon the existing cable modem business so successfully established by cable providers over the past several years. �The 1.1 modems are truly best of breed because of the additional capability they provide. I look forward to the development path as we use DOCSIS 1.1 as the base upon which to build our PacketCable™ and CableHome™systems."

Said Rouzbeh Yassini, executive consultant to CableLabs and head of the modem initiative: �In 1.1 we have taken 28 months to go from specification to certification. That is five months faster than the 33 months we took in taking 1.0 from specification to certification. Our process at CableLabs has once again proven to be a fast, efficient path to market for suppliers in the broadband industry," said Yassini, who also is President and CEO of YAS Broadband Ventures.

In the same announcement, CableLabs, the cable industry�s research and development consortium, announced it had bestowed certification stations on 29 DOCSIS 1.0 modems. This includes units from Accton, Ambit, Askey, Asustek, CastleNet, Correlant, Ericsson, Hauppauge, High Speed Surfing, LG Innotek, Lynksys, Motorola, Panasonic, Samsung Electronics, Scientific Atlanta, SMC Networks, Terayon, Thomson, Toshiba, Trigem Computer, Turbocomm, and Zoom. One new 1.0 CMTS, manufactured by Motorola, was qualified this wave as well.

To date, 181 DOCSIS 1.0 modems have received certification status and 24 CMTS have been qualified by CableLabs. New silicon from two additional sources, Correlant and Terayon, were included in modems certified this wave.
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.

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.