Cable telephony looks great on a white board; sounds stunning at a shareholder meeting; is a fine foundation for clever TV advertising - and is a bear to do right. The earliest cable telephony systems relied heavily on what the phone companies had been doing for the past century by using some version of time division multiplexing (TDM). In the meantime, CableLabs, as is its charter, continued to look for ways to make cable's offering both better and unique to its broadband pipe via the DOCSIS effort.

The principle at work in this case is simple; where there is opportunity and profit, competitors will emerge. With the evolution of technology in the voice marketplace this has held remarkably true especially over the past 18 months where the barrier to entry has fallen, as required for perfect competition, to near insignificance.

Too often investors and business managers are seduced by opportunity, prompt return, or sharp technology, blinded by the allure of short term success, and simply motivated by the thrill of the chase. We can easily be charmed into the simple solution, the one that gets us a reward for very little work. Certainly, the emergence of lowcost
telephony options presents cable systems with exactly that opportunity. In just the last eighteen months alone, subscribers have been barraged with powerful advertising campaigns and the adoption of alternative telephony services has surpassed all expectations.

In a time of advancing services and new applications, it can be reassuring to know that the basic physics of the cable network are still at the root of quality service delivery. All too often we forget that in the final stretch to the subscriber home we do nothing more than move electromagnetic waves over shielded and insulated copper. For those who have been technical operations managers over the past decade and touting the necessity of consistently high standards for plant maintenance, your redemption is now being delivered.