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Comporium Communications Selects BigBand Networks Infrastructure for Digital Media Services

Posted on: Monday, 11 October 2004, 06:00 CDT

Top-20 Local Exchange Carrier Delivering IP Television, Digital Cable and Broadband Internet Access over Cable and Fiber Networks

BigBand Networks Inc., a leading provider of network platforms for video, voice and data services, today announced that it is providing infrastructure to Comporium Communications, a top-20 U.S. incumbent local exchange carrier, for multiple digital media services. Comporium is using the BigBand BMR1200(R) (Broadband Multimedia-Service Router), BigBand BRE20(TM) (Broadband Real-Time Encoder), BigBand Cuda12000(TM) CMTS (cable modem termination system) and BigBand FastFlow(R) BPM (Broadband Provisioning Manager) to provide IP television, digital cable and broadband Internet access in its Southeast systems that serve more than 125,000 subscribers.

"As a provider of a wide spectrum of communication services, it is crucial for us to work with a partner that has highly capable, reliable and scaleable solutions for our IP video, digital cable TV and broadband needs," said Dan Smith, vice president of engineering and planning for Comporium. "We have had great success with the BigBand Networks' Cuda, FastFlow and BMR, and have been impressed with the BigBand BRE as a best-of-class solution for digital encoding. These standards-based platforms support the whole gamut of architectures, including fiber-to-the-home, twisted pair and hybrid fiber-coax. Comporium is an innovative company that needs innovative suppliers--BigBand Networks fits the bill."

Live video is centrally sourced by Comporium and is transported by efficient Gigabit Ethernet to network edge locations. From these sites, content is delivered to homes as IP video over fiber. In other Comporium areas, HFC (hybrid fiber-coaxial) cable systems deliver the same content to digital subscribers using the predominant MPEG-2 standard. Comporium is also providing broadband Internet access over the same HFC networks. The operator maximizes cost effectiveness and management capabilities by consolidating these services to BigBand Networks' intelligent, integrated platforms.

"Comporium remains at the technological forefront by broadly leveraging BigBand Networks' platform capabilities to provide multimedia services over fiber and digital cable," said John Connelly, executive vice president of marketing and business development of BigBand Networks. "Leading operators like Comporium can continuously enhance offerings and operating efficiencies through BigBand Networks' ongoing innovation for all media and broadband networks."

In Comporium's deployment, sources include satellite downlinks, terrestrial broadcasting and local encoding by the BRE20. A centralized BigBand BMR installation maximizes video quality, sets channel line-ups, and dynamically controls the bandwidth of each stream to fit within access network constraints and requirements. The platform's open flexibility across protocols achieves interface to both Comporium's IP fiber and HFC cable access plants, accommodating the specific needs of each.

For high speed-data, Comporium is using the highly reliable BigBand Cuda12000 for DOCSIS(R) 1.1 IP services, with provisioning and management of subscriber accounts by BigBand FastFlow. The BigBand BRE20, utilized by Comporium to encode analog video sources to digital, was developed by BigBand Networks in collaboration with EGT.

About BigBand Networks

BigBand Networks, Inc. designs, manufactures, sells and supports platforms for broadband multimedia services. These platforms are built on the company's NativeMedia(TM) technology uniquely capable of communicating and processing video, voice and data in their native formats. The field-upgradeable architecture combines advanced hardware and software technologies for high performance with agility to optimize for each service supported. This enables network operators to cost-effectively expand revenue-generating offerings of rich content and advanced, interactive services. Services supported by BigBand Networks' platforms include high-speed data, voice over IP, digital broadcast television, HDTV, transport of high quality video, local advertising, VOD and iTV. The company's customers include seven of the top ten North American cable operators. BigBand Networks is based in Redwood City, Calif. For more information on BigBand Networks, please visit www.bigbandnet.com.

About Comporium

The Comporium group of companies, based in Rock Hill, S.C., within the Charlotte, N.C., metropolitan region, provides a full spectrum of telecommunications and related services, including local telephone, long distance, wireless, cable TV, Internet, security, data services and directory publishing to residential and commercial customers. Please visit www.comporium.com for more information.

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