NEC Trots out Cable Modem

New York -- NEC America Inc. said last week that a closely
held internal data product is now out, in the form of a cable-modem and headend system.
Designed in conjunction with the IEEE 802.14 international-standards body, and with
cable-operator input, the new NEC modem is designed to run data asymmetrically from
headends to homes.

In the downstream direction, the NEC modem runs at 30
megabits per second, and upstream, data flow at between 300 kilobits per second and 5.1
mbps, executives said in a prepared statement.

Jim Carpenter, senior vice president of NEC America, said
in a prepared statement, "This is the first step in establishing NEC America as a
leading technology provider for the cable industry.

The modems are being developed in Japan, Carpenter said,
and they will be available in the United States in the fourth quarter.