Cerino Named MoCA’s First Full-Time President

The Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) said its board has unanimously appointed Charlie Cerino as the organization’s first full-time, paid president.

Cerino has been president of MoCA since 2007, while also representing Comcast on the MoCA board. In his revised role at MoCA, Cerino will no longer represent Comcast on the board, but will continue to sit on the board as an independent representative unaffiliated with any company, MoCA said. The organization added that there will be no material change in his duties, as he will continue to promote MoCA technology to operators worldwide, serve as a spokesman for the organization, and manage the Alliance’s day-to-day operations.

Cerino, who joined Comcast in 1978 as a system engineer, retired as vice president of Comcast Center Technology in 2013, but has continued to lead MoCA.

“The Board realized that the organization required the attention of an actively engaged president and that the best person for the job was already in place,” said William Beals, MoCA vice president, in a statement.

“I am honored by the Board’s decision and look forward to interacting with our members and operators as we continue to evolve the technology and set our sights higher and faster worldwide,” Cerino added. “We anticipate an exciting year for the Alliance. The progress on our next generation specifications will solidify MoCA’s position in home networking for years to come.”

MoCA is a high-speed, IP home networking platform that has become a key technology for whole-home DVR systems. The latest generation of MoCA, 2.0, delivers baseline net data rates of 400 Mbps and 800 Mbps (with bonding), and 1 Gbps in point-to-multipoint mode.

Last fall, MoCA announced that field tests showed that the 2.0 version of the platform achieved net data rates of 400 Mbps or more in 90% of all coaxial outlets, or paths, and net throughputs of at least 350 Mbps in 95% of paths. Last April, the organization said that all new product certifications conducted in the first quarter of 2015 were for devices based on MoCA 2.0, which was ratified by the organization in mid-2010

MoCA said it has certified 198 products in all, including about 40 for MoCA 2.0 from companies such as Actiontec, Arris, Alcatel-Lucent, Broadcom, Cisco Systems, Entropic (now part of MaxLinear), Hitron, MStar Semiconductor, Netgear, Pace plc (now part of Arris), Samsung, STMicroelectronics, Technicolor, TiVo, Ubee Interactive, and WNC.

MoCA is also comprised of 51 members. Its Promoter (board of director) members include Arris, Broadcom, Cisco, Cox Communications, DirecTV, EchoStar, MaxLinear, Verizon, Comcast and Intel Corp.