Road Runner to Leverage FORE Systems’ Backbone

FORE Systems Inc. today announced that Time Warner Inc. will employ its asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) backbone to deliver Time Warner’s Road Runner Internet access service to customers in Florida.

The newly unveiled “ForeRunner” network, announced today at the SuperComm ’98 trade show in Atlanta, will be made available to residents in the Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater areas.

In addition, the ATM network will deploy a new digital video service by
Time Warner called “Pegasus.” Slated to launch in the second quarter of
this year, Pegasus will feature over 200 channels.

Time Warner said it will also use ForeRunner to support its pay-per-view service, which allows subscribers to order movies and other entertainment via their televisions. Pay-per-view offerings are scheduled for availability during the third quarter of this year.

Launched in 1997, the media conglomerate’s Road Runner service provides Net access via a two-way cable modem that Time Warner claims is 100 times faster than standard phone modems, and provides each residence with 10BaseT-equivalent service (up to 10 Mbps throughput).

The company reports that the Florida hub is its second biggest service location with several thousand subscribers. Each distribution hub provides service to about 20,000 homes.

“We see the future of ATM as very bright in this industry,” said Mark
Bailey, v.p. and general manager of online services for Time Warner
Communications. “The types of products operators will roll out in the
future will be extremely bandwidth-intensive, and ATM’s ability to scale to
as much as OC-48 will be essential for getting these services to our
customers.”

“The ability to add these services and other new applications to our existing fiber ring via ATM enables us to not only justify the investment in fiber-optic, but to extend that investment’s return well into the future.”