As an industry, in fact, cable is completely tapped out, up to itseyeballs in debt and under major assault in its core business by directbroadcast satellite competitors that can offer more channels at much higherquality at about the same cost. Last year TCI, Cox and Comcast had promised to supply the Sprint TelecomVenture with 10 million two-way homes by the end of 1997. They have sincereneged, leaving Sprint to negotiate with each local system operator asit tries to patch together a telco bypass strategy. Chuck Dolan is trying to slip his nephew a billion dollars tobid on PCS spectrum, presumably planning a timely exit from the cable business. What a great way to unload these systemsat inflated prices to fat, stupid phone companies and then beat it out oftown-a trick TCI almost pulled off two years ago in its aborted deal withBell Atlantic.
Hope springs eternal.
If the new owners have a few dollars left in theirpockets and the modem vendors can hang on through the lean years, HFC systemsultimately may have an important role to play. But this is going to taketime measured in decades, not months. Bill Frezza is the president of Wireless Computing Associates. With the ability to determine the best path for routing data packets, routers are a fundamental component for any enterprisewide network. Network Computing's editors challenged vendors to devise fault-tolerant storage solutions, and you're invited to watch them face off and present their answers.