Lucent Technologies and General Instrument Agree to Develop and Market Equipment for Telephone Service Over Cable Networks

Business Wire, Dec 16, 1999

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 15, 1999--

Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) and General Instrument (NYSE: GIC) today announced joint development and marketing agreements that will expand Lucent's cable offer with Internet Protocol (IP) telephony products for customers' homes from General Instrument (GI). The combined solution enables cable operators to offer full-featured, reliable telephone service.

The joint development efforts will ensure that GI's equipment in customers' homes will interoperate with Lucent's equipment in cable operators' networks to deliver incoming and outgoing telephone calls and features like call waiting. The two companies also will integrate the software that manages their equipment.

An initial cable telephony over IP trial using the combined Lucent and GI solution is already underway with additional trials planned.

"From the beginning, one of our goals has been to bolster our CableConnect(SM) Solutions by leveraging the experience and technology of industry partners to help us deliver the right solution at the right time to customers," said Dee Dee Nye, vice president, cable communications, Lucent Technologies. "GI is a leader in equipment for HFC networks, and by working together we can provide cable operators with what they want: a reliable, feature-rich telephony over IP solution."

"With these agreements in place, GI and Lucent can offer the complete end-to-end telephony over IP solution that delivers the reliability, voice quality, and numerous services that the cable industry has been demanding," said Dan Moloney, senior vice president and general manager of GI's Advanced Network and Telecom Systems business unit. "We are looking forward to working closely with Lucent on the trials and introducing our solution - and the services it enables - to cable subscribers."

In the combined solution, Lucent's PathStar Access Server or 7R/E Packet Solutions will process the calls and deliver services like caller ID from the cable operator's network. Connected to Lucent's equipment and located inside or attached to the outside of a customer's home, will be customer premise equipment from GI's iQ Smart Access family of advanced IP telephony products. These products include the iQ Smart SURFboard SB3500, a cable modem with integrated telephony support, and the CentriQ 1000 communications gateway.

The CentriQ 1000 communications gateway gives customers up to four separate telephone lines, support for telephone features like call waiting, high-speed data via an integrated DOCSIS-based cable modem and a distribution point for video services. General Instrument's CentriQ 1000 and SURFboard SB3500 will be generally available in February 2000 and will support PacketCable 1.0 and DOCSIS 1.1 specifications from CableLabs. PacketCable and DOCSIS are emerging industry-wide equipment specifications for delivering IP telephony and high-speed data over cable networks.

GI's NETsentry , the software-based management system for its equipment, will integrate with Lucent's CableConnect Operation Support Solution (OSS) to enable cable operators to use the combined network management systems to provision, manage and monitor the equipment from the two companies.

Available in the first quarter of 2000, Lucent's CableConnect Solutions is a set of integrated hardware, software and services that enable cable operators to offer customers full-featured, reliable telephony service and high-speed data access from their existing cable network.

General Instrument is a leading worldwide provider of integrated and interactive broadband access solutions, teaming with its business partners to lead the convergence of the Internet, telecommunications and video entertainment industries. More information about General Instrument can be found on the company's Web site at http://www.gi.com.

Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., designs, builds and delivers a wide range of public and private networks, communications systems and software, data networking systems, business telephone systems and microelectronic components. Bell Labs is the research and development arm of the company. More information about Lucent Technologies can be found on the company's Web site at http://www.lucent.com.