Cedar Point gets cozy with Motorola Broadband

Cedar Point Communications and Motorola Broadband Communications Sector today signed a strategic collaboration agreement that at first blush appears to be a simple marketing agreement to co-market and sell equipment to cable operators-deployed voice over IP services.

However, as part of the agreement Motorola also has agreed to support Cedar Point’s Safari C3 switching system, giving the relative start-up a big brother in a market that is expected to boom this year.

Under terms of the agreement, Motorola will combine its Broadband Services Router 64000 cable modem termination system (CMTS), its SURFboard multi-terminal adapters (MTAs), and the Motorola Advanced Provisioning System (MAPS) with the Safari C3. The two companies, which have worked together in the past, also announced that they have completed interoperability testing of the whole package.

"It takes the risk out of the consumer’s hands and mitigates liability," said Mark Dzuban, vice chairman of Cedar Point. "The whole systems integration part becomes a smaller issue."

For the Derry, NH-based vendor, though, the movement of the relationship with Motorola beyond just casual collaboration is significant.

"Who has the most piece parts that apply to voice over IP and has the most channels to the customer and has a huge opportunity to create differentiated features? Motorola falls very well into that," Dzuban said.

The agreement, however, is non-exclusive and Cedar Point has worked with other CMTS vendors.