• TWC, Bresnan install WooshCom’s battery replacement kit
By Mike Robuck
WooshCom recently announced large sales of its battery-replacement kit for Motorola’s IRT-1000 and IRT-2000 receiver/modulators to Time Warner Cable (TWC) and Bresnan Communications.
WooshCom said the Model BK-1000 kit was designed to extend the life of IRTs, whose aging batteries were starting to cause reliability issues. The battery kits will, conservatively, save Bresnan more than $1.1 million and TWC more than $1.7 million, according to WooshCom. The battery kit extends the life of the cable operators’ Motorola receivers while maintaining important encryption keys and postponing the need to purchase new receivers.
“Our IRT Battery Kit is unique in that it is the first such kit designed to be easily installed by a technician at the headend,” said Bruce Marler, president and CTO of WooshCom. “It can be installed on a live IRT that is still authorized and passing a video feed to customers. That way, the headend staff doesn’t have to go through the painful and time-consuming de-authorization and re-authorization process. It takes about five to 10 minutes per IRT to perform the replacement. Our customers save the replacement cost of a new receiver and get the enhanced reliability of new batteries without having to ship the IRT anywhere.”
• Cox promotes Pugliese to SVP of product marketing
By Traci Patterson
Cox Communications has promoted David Pugliese to SVP of product marketing.
He will continue to oversee Cox’s marketing initiatives for video, Internet, telephony and wireless products, as well as for bundling, competitive strategy and customer retention strategy.
Pugliese joined Cox in 1996 as the executive director of voice and data marketing. He most recently served as VP of product marketing. Prior to joining Cox, he held various positions with AT&T, Frontier Telephone and Global Crossing.
• Verizon’s FiOS TV, high-speed Internet services score victories
By Traci Patterson
Verizon’s FiOS TV service will soon be available to 3,000 additional Hingham, Mass., residents thanks to a newly approved agreement authorizing the telco to offer its video service there. The vote makes 68 the total number of Massachusetts communities where Verizon’s FiOS TV is, or will soon be, available.
Additionally, 37,000 West Virginia consumers, as well as consumers in nearly 140 Pennsylvania communities, now have access to Verizon’s high-speed Internet service, which more than doubles the download speed of Verizon’s DSL offering.
The new Internet service offers qualified customers a downstream connection speed of up to 7 Mbps for as low as $39.99 per month when ordered with an annual service plan. Verizon now offers the 7 Mbps service to 1.6 million households and small businesses nationwide.
• Yahoo’s Q1 profit increases; Microsoft not ready to sweeten bid
By Mike Robuck
Yesterday, Yahoo said its 2008 first-quarter profit increased by 9 percent compared with the same quarter a year ago, but Microsoft indicated that it will not increase its bid for the Internet search company.
Yahoo reported revenues of $1.8 million for the first quarter, compared with $1.6 million in the same time frame a year ago. Sunnyvale, Calif-based Yahoo earned $542.2 million, or 37 cents per share, during the first quarter, which was more than triple its profit of $142.4 million, or 10 cents per share, in 2007’s first quarter.
Earlier this year, Microsoft made an unsolicited bid of $44.6 billion, or 31 cents per share, for Yahoo. According to Reuters, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said prior to the release of Yahoo’s first-quarter results that his company would not be increasing its bid. Ballmer set Saturday as the deadline for Yahoo’s board to accept Microsoft’s initial bid. If the board refuses the bid, Ballmer said Microsoft will submit a lower bid directly to Yahoo’s shareholders.
• Arris adds Portuguese interface to Workflow Management suite
By Mike Robuck
Arris announced today that its field management suite, called WorkAssure, is now available with a Portuguese language graphical user interface, in addition to its existing English, Spanish and French versions, to support the global cable marketplace.
Arris said WorkAssure is a paperless, automated operations software system (OSS) product that allows cable operators to optimize the performance of their field management personnel and enhance the efficiency and accuracy of new subscriber installations while increasing the speed of customer service response times.
“Arris is primed to supply its premier workforce management solution to the world’s cable operators,” said Bailey Shewchuk, Arris’ VP and GM of the assurance solutions division for media and communication systems. “The flexible design of WorkAssure not only enables comprehensive language support, but also includes a feature-rich solution with the ability to integrate with multiple outside sources.”
• Cedar Point’s Safari C³ completes Telecentro’s triple-play
By Traci Patterson
Cedar Point Communications’ Safari C³ Multimedia Switching System has been deployed by Telecentro, a cable operator in Argentina, in conjunction with the operator’s debut of triple-play services in the greater Buenos Aires area.
Telecentro is providing cable telephony as part of a bundle of services that include voice, broadband data and 84 channels of video over its 860 Mhz hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) plant. The package is the first triple-play bundle to be launched in the Buenos Aires region.
“As the initial providers of triple play services in the most visible market in Argentina, it is important that we ensure the highest levels of reliability and service for our customers,” said Sebastian Pierri, CEO of Telecentro. “Cedar Point and Safari C³ have the proven ability to enable service providers to simply and cost-effectively provide the high-quality performance that will ensure a successful rollout of our bundled service.”
• Incognito provides provisioning system for Indian op
By Traci Patterson
Incognito Software’s Broadband Command Center has been deployed by Hathway Datacom, a broadband service provider in India, to add a fully convergent device provisioning system for the operator’s expanding customer base.
“We are looking at providing a highly available and robust provisioning system for estimated more than 500,000 broadband subscribers by year end,” said John Goddard, managing director of C-Cor Broadband of Australia, which acted as the Integration Partner on the project.
Hathway will also be providing Incognito’s provisioning technology to a number of operators within India through lease and resale of Incognito Software.
More Broadband Direct:
• Martin blasts Comcast P2P defense
• John Brooks’ NuLink snaps up Newnan Utilities’ assets
• CIO.IT gears up for The Cable Show ’08
• Broadcom tops revenue forecast, faces SEC charges for stock option backdating
• AT&T to invest $400M in La. if awarded statewide video franchise
• SureWest goes with Alcatel’s VoIP for Consumers in NoCal
• Tellabs’ earnings up; kills OLT for FiOS