Cox Communications officials Wednesday said they are
adding a bevy of routers to its cable network in a move to become self-reliant.
The company will deploy “hundreds” of Riverstone Networks Inc.
several months in order to provide services currently handled by its cable Internet
service provider (ISP) @Home arm.
The need for Cox to provide its own Internet service is one officials have
acknowledged for nearly a year, as the growth of cable Internet
subscriptions have skyrocketed around the country. Cox, a
company with more than 779,000 residential Internet subscribers, has
spent the year extricating itself from @Home, a joint venture with AT&T
Broadband and Comcast Corp.
With roughly 550,000 Cox customers using @Home services today, the router
purchase will get them into the Cox fold. Rumors of an impending shutdown
at @Home have only hastened the timetable to get the routers up and running
as soon as possible.
If @Home shut down Friday, as
some reports have it, more than a half-million Cox@Home users would be
stranded until the routers come “online.” It’s a worst-case scenario that
has many cable users nervous.
Jay Rolls, Cox vice president of data engineering, said that it’s just as
important to get the right equipment on the Cox hybrid fiber optic/coaxial
network as getting it in as soon as possible.
“This is a significant network deployment, and we are confident that
Riverstone’s products will allow us to gain additional capacity while
enhancing our network availability,” Rolls said. “In building our Cox-
managed high-speed Internet service, it is important that we deploy highly
reliable technologies that also allow us to transition toward emerging
technologies, such as MPLS, RPR and 10 Gigabit Ethernet.”
Riverstone’s RS 3000 metro access routers, RS 38000 metro aggregation
routers and RS 8000/8600 multi-service metro routers also pave the way for
Cox to provide cable telephony services. The routers accommodate
asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) and synchronous optical network (SONET)
architectures.
Marian Stasney, a senior analyst at The Yankee Group, said Cox made a
good decision when signing Riverstone to the multi-million dollar contract.
“With several significant wins under its belt — including Korea Telecom,
Dacom, Japan Telecom, Huchison Global Crossing and now Cox Communications
— Riverstone has demonstrated its abilities in the
deployment, service and post-sales support of incumbent carriers,” she
said. “While Riverstone is well positioned from a technology standpoint, it
has recognized that technology is but one component of delivering a
solution to tier-one carriers. Strong pre- and post-sales service,
operating efficiencies and a low cost-to-benefit ratio are crucial
components in building a tier-one customer base.”
