TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Super Speed Broadband Seen over Cable TV in Within a Year

Super Speed Broadband Seen over Cable TV in Within a Year

News Wire (reuters@telecom-digest.org)
Wed, 20 Jul 2005 09:38:42 -0500

Broadband Internet access via TV cables can reach 100 Megabits per
second as early as next year, 50 times faster than the average
broadband speeds now offered to cable TV homes, a Finnish firm said on
Wednesday.

Similar data transmission speeds are possible over fibre networks, but
these cost much more for the operators to build.

"This is a cost-efficient technology as we use the cable TV networks
which are already in place," Jukka Rinnevaara, Chief Executive of
small-cap Finnish broadband equipment maker Teleste (TLT1V.HE), told
Reuters.

Teleste, whose rivals include big U.S. firms Scientific Atlanta and
Cisco Systems Inc., said it would early next year bring to the market
its Ethernet to the Home product which will give consumers access to
100Mb/s speed.

The sector is closely followed by big technology firms. Last month
Sweden's Ericsson offered $51 million to buy Norwegian firm AXXESSIT
which makes broadband ethernet access equipment for telecom
operators. To accelerate the transmission speed Teleste fits ethernet
-- a cheap and standard transport method for Internet data over
broadband networks -- into cable television networks.

It said it expects first rival technology to be on the market at the
earliest in the second-quarter of 2007.

Teleste is running a field-trial with cable TV service provider Essent
in Netherlands, but not yet at the top speeds it expects most homes
will need in a few years time.

"Based on our research 30 Megabits per second is the absolute minimum
in future homes. Just one TV program would take 10-20 Megabits per
second of this alone. So, very fast we would reach a need for 30
Megabits, and also for 50 Megabits per second," Pekka Rissanen, a
Teleste executive told a news conference.

Rissanen said the cost of connecting a home with the new
ethernet-to-the-home technology can vary between 50 euros ($60.28) and
200 euros ($241).

CEO Rinnevaara declined to say how much the new technology could boost
Teleste's sales or profits in the next 12 months.

($1=.8294 Euro) ($1=.8294 Euro)

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.

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