Cable telephony returns to Western Show: Vendors feature smooth transition to future networks

Beyond the glitz and giveaways, attendees at this year's Western Cable Show in Anaheim, Calif., will come away with a lesson in karma: namely, that what goes around comes around. Cable telephony-missing from the last few shows-is back.

Many of the solutions are tailored to let multiple system operators migrate from today's predominantly circuit-switched network to the Internet protocol (IP) networks of the future.

ADC Telecommunications' Homeworx DualTech system allows cable operators to link to an IP gateway and begin offering access and transport from both IP and public networks. The product's next version, set to ship in the second half of 1999, will add enhanced features such as call forwarding, call waiting and caller ID. This version also will offer lifeline capability, powering the connection independently to ensure that it works even in emergencies.

"Once the cable/IP convergence is complete, telephony in the cable world will be able to supply the same lifeline and CLASS services as telcos," said Ham Mathews, director of IP telephony business development at ADC. "We can offer like for like, but at a better price because we can undercut the tariffs telcos pay."

Arris Interactive, which recently signed a $50 million deal with AT&T, also will add IP transition capabilities to the host digital terminal of its Cornerstone telephony system. "The prudent thing to do is to get into the [telephony] business today," said Lee Williams, senior manager of Cornerstone marketing for Arris. "There's also a lot of learning to be done, whether it's in IP or circuit-switched technology-things as fundamental as business organization, maintenance and trouble-shooting. You can't do these things the way you do in television service because the impact on voice is more severe."

Among other broadband telephony products at the Western Show, Tellabs will demonstrate voice over IP on its Cablespan 3.0 platform.