Word: modem
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...cable empire is finally striking back. Its secret weapon: blisteringly fast access to the Internet, courtesy of the cable modem, an electronic gadget that connects computers to the outside world via cable-TV lines instead of phone lines. In the past two weeks, America's two largest cable operators, TCI and Time Warner, launched the nation's first commercial cable-modem services in Fremont, California, and Akron, Ohio, respectively. Time Warner built its own service, dubbed Road Runner (after Warner Bros.' lightning-speed cartoon character); TCI joined forces with a Silicon Valley start-up called @Home. The basic pitch, however...
...answer that question that the leading major U.S. cable operators are racing to become Internet providers. Today's media darling, @Home, which launched last year vowing to build the first national cable-modem network, has exclusive deals with TCI, Cox and Comcast. In addition to its Fremont service, it is readying rollouts with TCI in Hartford, Connecticut, and Arlington, Illinois; Cox in Orange County, California; and Comcast in Baltimore, Maryland. "We're in a frenzy," says CEO Tom Jermoluk. "We've got 20 or 30 cities going online. We'll reach hundreds of thousands of homes very shortly...
...better wire them up quickly. The telephone companies, eyeing the same potential subscribers, have begun introducing their own high-speed services, including ISDN (integrated-services digital network), which offers four times the bandwidth of a standard modem, and ADSL (assymetrical digital-subscriber line), which approaches cable speed. And the telcos are good at running the complex switching and billing systems required to bring the Net to millions of customers...
...only do these amps not work when messages are funneled upstream, they actually degrade signals already under assault from radio interference. "There's far more noise in the coaxial system than any of us expected to see," says a hardware executive who has been close to the cable-modem industry since its inception. "It's really difficult to drive the signals out over these lines. Every trial to date has run into that as a significant problem...
Netscape wasted little time in counterattacking. Two weeks later, on Aug. 26, company founder Jim Clark unveiled blueprints for a new software firm called Navio that will try to outflank Microsoft by putting browser software on pretty much anything with a screen and a modem. The first stop is likely to be an Internet TV, followed by a $500 network computer, online video gaming machines and Net-surfing cell phones. Organized around a powerhouse electronics alliance that includes just about everyone but Microsoft (Sony, NEC, Nintendo and IBM are supporting the venture), the company...