DOCSIS™ 2.0 Approved as International Standard

ITU Sets J.122

Louisville, Colorado, December 19, 2002—The ITU-T (International Telecommunications Union—Telecommunication Sector) has announced the approval of a standard defining the second-generation data over cable system, also known as DOCSIS™ 2.0.

The completion of the Recommendation J.122 represents a major milestone in the development of the broadband infrastructure worldwide. The award winning technology gives cable operators the ability to offer speeds up to 600 times faster than are available through standard dial-up telephone modems.

DOCSIS (Data over Cable Service Interface Specification) technology has been specified by CableLabs. DOCSIS 2.0 is the latest member of the DOCSIS family. Separately today, CableLabs® announced that it has awarded certification status for DOCSIS 2.0 compliance during the recently completed round of certification testing.

Dr. Richard R. Green, Chairman of the relevant ITU-T Study Group 9 and President and CEO of CableLabs stated, �DOCSIS is recognized as a technology that enables the broadband revolution to reach communities and that will help sustain economic development. ITU�s fast action enables cable operators around the world to provide consumers and bandwidth users with a faster, more powerful version of that technology.�

Rouzbeh Yassini, executive consultant to CableLabs and head of its Broadband Access initiative, said: �DOCSIS is a great enabler. We have seen more than 20 million DOCSIS modems shipped to nearly every continent. Our colleagues in Europe and Asia have played a major role in this globalization of DOCSIS technology,� added Yassini. �Cable modem prices have plummeted because of DOCSIS and it is the basis for an exciting array of new Internet Protocol-based consumer and business services that cable operators will deliver,� he said.

The new international standard is a key to unleashing the significant bandwidth available in cable systems, and is backward compatible with previous versions of the DOCSIS . Furthermore, as is true with the previous version of the specification (ITU-T Rec. J.112, also known as DOCSIS 1.1), the new standard can be used as the foundation upon which IPCablecom IP-communication/telephony services can be offered. The standardization is remarkable due to the fact that work on the specification began less than 18 months ago. The rapid standardization is important to promoting worldwide adoption of this important technology.

The enhancements that J.122 provides over J.112 are primarily focused on the upstream transmission path, from the customer to the network.

The new standard provides significantly increased capacity and improved robustness to the upstream path allowing cable operators to make maximum use of their existing infrastructure.

The specification includes two technologies that achieve that goal: an advanced form of time-division multiple access, and synchronous code-division multiple access.

About CableLabs: Cable Television Laboratories (www.cablelabs.com) was founded in 1988 by members of the cable television industry. A non-profit research and development consortium, CableLabs delivers innovations that enable cable operators to be the providers of choice in their markets. Cable operators from around the world are members. CableLabs maintains additional web sites at www.cablenet.org, www.ebif.tv and www.tru2way.com.

CableLabs® is a registered trademark of Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. Other CableLabs marks are listed at http://www.cablelabs.com/certqual/trademarks. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.