Terayon Breaches 1 Million Modem Mark
By JEFF BAUMGARTNER -- Multichannel News, 9/11/2000
Santa Clara, Calif.-Terayon Communication Systems Inc. said it reached an important milestone after shipping its millionth cable modem, providing further proof that proprietary technology continues to make hay for the company.
According to Terayon, it controlled 51 percent of the North American market for proprietary cable-modem products and 39 percent of the worldwide market.
Terayon's proprietary technology centers on S-CDMA (synchronous code-division multiple access), a system that enables modems to perform well in noisy, fiber-free cable systems, allowing cable operators to market high-speed-data services prior to costly system upgrades.
"Terayon is the only vendor that is continuing to make strides with its proprietary technology," Kinetic Strategies Inc. president and broadband analyst Michael Harris said, noting that Terayon is a smaller player in the standardized Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification sphere, with about 15 percent of that market.
The largest cable-modem supplier is Motorola Broadband Communications Sector, which shipped 221,000 proprietary modems and 428,000 DOCSIS modems in the second quarter, Harris said.
About 64 percent of all modem shipments in that period were DOCSIS-based, he added.
Terayon distributes cable modems to Adelphia Communications Corp., Cablevision Systems Corp., Globocabo, Rogers Cable Inc., Shaw Communications Inc. and United Pan-Europe Communications N.V. (UPC), among others.
Platform-agnostic Terayon also provides broadband equipment for digital-subscriber-line and satellite systems and supports other interoperability standards such as the EuroDOCSIS and DVB/DAVIC (Digital Video Broadcast and Digital Audio/Video Interoperability Council) specifications
