London -- European set-top manufacturer Pace Micro
Technology plc snared two deals at last week's European Cable Communications '98
show here.
One deal was with cable operator NTL Ltd. to supply 100,000
digital cable boxes, and the other was with Network Computer Inc. for interactive
technology inside Pace digital boxes.
The first Pace set-top boxes with the NCI technology will
be brought to market by Cable & Wireless Communications in the United Kingdom next
spring. CWC signed a deal in July under which Pace will provide 100,000 digital boxes to
the cable operator.
The technology alliance with NCI follows a deal that CWC
signed in March through which it chose NCI's "DTV Navigator" platform as
the foundation for its broadband interactive-cable deployments.
As far as Pace's new digital-box order with NTL, the
supplier said it will deliver the 100,000 NTL boxes over the next 12 months.
Pace now has digital-box agreements with two of
Britain's three MSOs. Pace also supplies digital boxes to British Sky Broadcasting,
which launched its digital service Oct. 1.
"We are also at an advanced development stage with our
'ONdigital' digital-terrestrial box, and we are about to embark on field
trials," Malcolm Miller, Pace's CEO, said in a prepared statement last week.
ONdigital launches Nov. 15.
