REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- BigBand Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: BBND), a leader in digital video networking, today announced that it has shipped more than 600,000 edge QAMs to over 60 service providers worldwide. BigBand is also expanding the industry’s most widely deployed universal edge QAM platform with the addition of its new double density BEQ™6200 8:1 QAM, which will be available in the next 90 days.

BigBand’s new BEQ6200 is designed to enable service providers to double capacity for advanced video and data services when rack space is at a premium. It features 96 QAMs in the same 1.5 rack unit form factor as the BEQ™6000 QAM. BEQ6200’s and BEQ6000’s can be collectively configured and managed to provide a good match of QAM service group size, rack space and economics to meet today’s universal QAM requirements.

The BEQ6200 offers:

• Increased density. The platform significantly increases density with 96 QAMs and 8:1 up-conversion and is directly stackable, saving valuable space in the hub.

• Proven performance and flexibility. The BEQ6200 is based on the same industry-leading hardware design, giving operators the same performance, reliability and configuration flexibility to mix and match QAMs to the right service group size.

• Simplified management. The double density QAM operates with the identical software as the BEQ6000 platform, including BigBand’s VMS 4.3, which supports mass configuration and management.

“We’re at a tipping point in terms of bandwidth congestion at the network edge,” said John Holobinko, vice president of Marketing, BigBand Networks. “As the industry shifts to IP video and IPTV delivery, the demand for more service groups and larger numbers of QAMs per service group is growing. With input from our customers, we’ve laid out a way for service providers to implement and manage larger numbers of new and legacy QAMs, with the best mix of reliability and density and a path to next-generation platforms.”

BigBand Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: BBND)