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AT&T struggles to defend open cloudiness of Ericsson deal
More than a year into the Ericsson-led rollout, there is very little evidence AT&T's radio access network is as multivendor and virtualized as the telco makes out.
Box vendor all but confirms it has scored a DTA deal with Comcast
As "Cable," a Light Reading message board visitor pointed out over the weekend, Pace Micro Technology , lo and behold, has scored a big deal to supply digital-to-analog converter boxes.
In a terse press release dated May 29, Pace announced it had "signed a new contract for the U.S. cable market… for a low cost digital to analogue converter product that will enable the transition to all-digital networks and will be delivered over the next three years."
Translated, that's corporate code-speak for: "We scored a deal to supply Digital Terminal Adapters (DTAs) to Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK)." Comcast, in case you've forgotten, plans to use millions of the simple adapters to help it reclaim valuable chunks of analog spectrum for expanded video-on-demand and high-definition television services, as well as channels for Docsis 3.0. (See Comcast Confirms Digital Dongle Project and Comcast Pursuing $35 Digital Dongle.)
Pace's deal affirmation late last week comes after the vendor was playing it coy at The Cable Show in New Orleans. While other set-top vendors, including Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), and Thomson S.A. (NYSE: TMS; Euronext Paris: 18453), proudly showed off their DTAs on the floor (Thomson even had a live demo), we were told that Pace had one, too, but was sharing the goods with operators behind closed doors. (See DTAs on Parade .)
So, why announce something now? As a publicly held company, it had to, after the board determined "that the outturn for the year will materially exceed existing expectations."
Guess the only thing they didn't get was an OK from Comcast to disclose the MSO as the customer in question, though there's not much question about it.
— Jeff Baumgartner, Site Editor, Cable Digital News
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