The noisiest buzz in the industry lately has been over the emerging use of cable TV systems to provide fast network data transmissions using a device called a cable modem. But the likelihood of this technology succeeding is zilch. It's one of those interesting-sounding ideas that will attract what venture capitalists call dumb money. Unfortunately, it's a big distraction in a market that should be concentrating on ISDN and broadband. HP, U.S. Robotics, ZDS, and others have been toying with the idea for a few years, and Motorola Multimedia Group's recently announced CyberSurfer 10-Mbps cable modem has completely muddied the waters.
Cable modems are, of course, targeted at Net surfers.
According to the press announcement, the CyberSurfer will be the fastest, receiving data at 10 Mbps and sending it at 768 Kbps. Exactly how the modem will work on the largely one-way cable systems in the U.S. is a mystery. And since there's no governing standards organization for cable modems, these devices won't be able to talk to modems made by anyone else. But hey, they sure are fast. This isn't likely to change as providers try to serve as many users as possible, rather than pump 128 Kbps or more to a few people.