CABL Forum - Re: Wideband

Comcast's Roberts Unveils 'Wideband' Technology

Jim Cooper

MAY 08, 2007 -

Continuing on the theme that competition is driving the cable industry to new heights, Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts, during Tuesday’s opening session at the National Cable and Telecommunications Association conference in Las Vegas, unveiled new broadband technology called "wideband," which can download vast amounts of data and video in a matter of seconds and potentially supercharge cable’s triple-play offering.

“This opens a new chapter for our industry,” said Roberts, who first introduced the cable modem during an NCTA presentation in 1996.

Roberts went on to demonstrate how wideband can download four gigabytes of data, the entire Encyclopedia Britannica Library--55 million words and more--in just under four minutes. It would take a traditional cable modem about three hours and a dial-up connection two weeks to download the same amount of data, which Roberts said is equivalent to how much the average family consumes online a month.

“It’s kind of mind boggling to think what you’d be able to do with that speed,” said Roberts.

In the short term, Roberts and his fellow cable operators plan to use that speed to continue to hammer away at the competitive threat from both the telcos and satellite with their triple-play offering of video, broadband and voice services.

And as that triple play continues to attract consumers with new services, the big MSOs intend to grow in scale and even acquire or crowd out new-media competition that has just started to test cable’s incumbency in the broadband video space.

“Cable’s prospects have been exponentially improved by broadband,” said Time Warner chairman and CEO Richard Parsons, who joined Roberts as well as Peter Chernin, president and COO of News Corp., and Philippe Dauman, president and CEO of Viacom, on a panel immediately following the brief demonstration of wideband.

Parsons and Roberts both briefly acknowledged the competitive threats to cable in the broadband space, but said that their industry--via its established plant--will be able to create new businesses that will make their pipes indispensable outlets for their customers.

“Wherever the value falls we’ll be there to catch it,” said Parsons.

On the content side, Dauman said that Viacom will continue to partner with cable and other distributors to create a fuller experience for consumers as well as reinforce the company’s content brands.

“We’re having a much deeper conversation about how we can serve our mutual customers,” said Dauman, who pointed to Viacom’s recent focus on virtual content as an example of an additive experience to existing offerings.

Chernin also said technology developments will bode well for the relationship between cable and customers, but pointed to the problems of piracy and the “disaggregation of business models” that rapid technology rollouts could create.

“We’re trying to redefine our company into a digital content production company,” said Chernin, who pointed to News Corp.’s Myspace as an example of where digital broadband video will increasingly reside.

However, the panelists agreed that while new media, such as Google, has captured buzz as well as the consumers’ attention, the incumbent media will drive the market forward.

“I do think you’ll see new acquisitions,” said Chernin. “The big will get bigger. Comcast is an incredible valuable platform to bolt new things on to.”

“The notion that the new kids on the block are taking over is false,” said Parsons, who later referred to Google as the media industry’s Custer. “We’re the Sioux Nation,” he said. “They may have repeating rifles, but if they take this fight to us they’re going to lose the war.”

The panel also briefly weighed in on the future potential of wireless offerings that could create a quadruple play for MSOs, digital rights management as well as how to best push back on the regulation of content and the call for a la carte channeling tiers coming from Washington.

But it was Roberts’ introduction of the wideband technology that truly moved the needle forward.

“Consumers want more, faster,” said Roberts. “We just have to keep investing.”

INSTALLATION

CONSTRUCTION / TECH

OFFICE / OTHER

Re: Wideband