ZURICH, Switzerland, May 24, 2004 - Cisco Systems today announced that Cablecom is upgrading its network with the Cisco MC28U Broadband Processing Engine (BPE), which will help Cablecom to offer higher speed and higher quality broadband cable services to its subscribers. The new EURO-DOCSIS 2.0 compliant and PacketCable 1.1 qualified technology will also help accelerate Cablecom's deployment of advanced IP services, such as converged voice and video.
By upgrading its existing Cisco uBR7246VXR cable modem termination systems (CMTS) with the Cisco BPE, Cablecom will improve its overall bandwidth availability and increase its signal quality and reliability. As a result, Cablecom will be able to introduce new, revenue-generating services with up to 3Mbit/s speeds to its customers, while avoiding the expense of replacing existing hybrid fibre coaxial (HFC) cable infrastructure in the last mile.
This evolutionary upgrade to Cablecom's existing Cisco CMTS's will add processing power and Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities and as a result provides the foundation for migrating video services to IP in the future while providing operational and capex efficiencies.
"We are witnessing a rapid increase in demand for bandwidth and broadband services from our customers, as well as the need to minimize our capital expenditures, which encouraged us to optimize, rather than replace our existing cable infrastructure," said Andreas Noethiger, Head of Networkengineering for Cablecom. "The processing performance and frequency management capabilities of Cisco's BPE helps us provide high-performance broadband services to a growing number of customers, with a higher quality of delivery. Using Cisco's uBR cable products also means that we can quickly increase or decrease the bandwidth for individual customers using Cisco IOS® software."
Cisco's MC28U BPE features interference removal capabilities which help Cablecom provide higher bandwidth and increased signal quality. As Cablecom's subscribers increasingly use broadband connections to exchange their own digital photos, use video messaging services and watch streaming media, increasing the downstream and the upstream paths of the network provide an improved customer experience, which is key to reducing subscriber churn.
"Operators are looking at how they can profitably and competitively expand their service offerings. Using Cisco's Broadband Processing Engines, operators can now evolve their installed base of cable modem termination systems with the capacity and management capabilities required for advanced IP services," said Enrico Deluchi, managing director, Service Provider Challengers segment, for Cisco Systems in Europe, Middle East and Africa. "The ability to add both processing power and intelligence at the edge will help cable operators increase revenues from their IP services portfolio, but also, crucially, will help them to compete in the broadband market."
The Cisco MC28U BPE - a new module designed for the Cisco uBR7246VXR cable modem termination system (CMTS) will help improve the performance of Cablecom's CMTS, helping Cablecom to serve new subscribers with minimal additional capital expenditure in HFC network expansion. In addition, the Cisco uBR7246VXR CMTS with the new MC28U line card has recently achieved PacketCable 1.1 Qualification from CableLabs. Cablecom is also deploying a range of Cisco routing, switching and optical equipment, including the Cisco 12000 series router and Cisco ONS 15454 Multiservice Transport Platform (MSTP) to support its network infrastructure.
About Cablecom
With approx. 1.5 million households (1.1 million hispeed) and some 1,500 employees, cablecom is Switzerland's leading cable network operator. As a multi-service provider, cablecom offers solutions in the fields of analogue and digital cable TV and radio, broadband internet, telephony and business applications.
