Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Node
Splits
How, When and Whether
Page 22
King Content
Propagation & Distribution 26
Target Leakage
Rifle or Shotgun? 32
www.cable360.net/ct
Telephony
14
18
Justin Junkus examines
business services.
SCTE Message 40
Nomi Bergman lines out the
Cable-Tec Expo 2007 program.
news and
22 Node Splitting opinion
There are still some big optical nodes out there. Editor’s Letter 6
But many ar knotty, and resist a clean strike down
the middle. Then there's the question of how much CT Reports 8
additional throughput this actually buys you. Viva Cox Vegas Hospitality 8
Cable and the Bundle 10
SCTE Hits Standards Mark 12
Backtalk 42
26 King Content
Honoring the content king—or rather the many claimants to that
throne—calls for a propagation and distribution network that
preserves the integrity of the content/customer relationship.
32 Target Leakage
Leakage can be a tricky target to hit, sometimes requiring rifle–like preci-
sion, and other times needing the wider pattern of a shotgun approach.
Global Positioning System (GPS) technology can help in either case.
reference
Marketplace 36
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PUBLICATIONS MAIL SALES AGREEMENT NO. 40558009
march2007
Mark Bishop, NCTC David Grubb, Motorola Marv Nelson, SCTE Senior Graphic Designer, Vince Lim
Mark Bugajski, Arris Wayne Hall, Comcast Dan Pike, GCI Cable Advertising Production Director, John Blaylock–Cooke 212-621-4655
Dave Caputo, Sandvine John Hartung, EGT Rex Porter, MasTec
Bill Check, NCTA Keith Hayes, Charter Chris Skarica, Lindsay Broadband MARKETING
Kip Compton, Cisco Ron Hranac, Cisco Tim Spencer, Sigma Systems
Marketing Manager, Doreen Price
Jim Farmer, Wave7 Optics Steve Johnson, Time Warner Sandeep Vohra, Scientific-Atlanta
Doug Franchville, Acterna Charlie Kennamer, Comcast Gene White, Bright House
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SCTE NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
140 Philips Road, Exton, PA 19341-1318
610-363-6888 • www.scte.org
march2007
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Occam's Razor
Here’s a multi-million dollar question: Will the cost And yet another connection in this issue with
of CMTS core functionality drop anywhere nearly as Patrick: His five-to-seven year projections presume
fast as demand for throughput is expected to rise? a 750 homes-passed node. Nothing smaller. Is node
Not likely. Thus the elegant—and nonpropri- segmentation reaching a point of diminishing re-
etary—proposal from Motorola Data Networking turns? Maybe so. (See page 22.)
Architect Michael Patrick to sidestep the expensive Finally, a reminder from Ken Eckenroth that
“hair-pin” turn that burgeoning volumes of IP traffic minding the basics, in this case, measuring CLI,
would otherwise need to take around the modular doesn’t mean neglecting new technologies, such as
cable modem termination system (M-CMTS). global positioning systems. (See page 32.)
Patrick—and others—have been circulating this As for Eckenroth’s question of rifle or shotgun,
idea for months, but he formalized it in a paper one more inside note: whereas I point my 50-year-
prepared for this year’s SCTE Conference on Emerg- old Remington Sportsman 58 toward moving targets,
ing Technologies. At the same event, Time Warner our Managing Editor Ron Hendrickson, formerly a
Cable Senior Director of Video Systems Glen Hardin U.S. Marine infantryman, aims his even older M1 at
offered another clean-cut solution, namely: letting stationary six-inch X-rings 600 yards away.
customers use their PCs as a way around the on-de- Keep in mind, if you ever consider contributing
mand user-interface bottleneck. to us, that our managing editor takes the notion of
There could be a trend at work here. Call it a deadlines rather literally.
move away from complexity and toward Occam’s
razor, the principle that all things being equal, the
simplest solution is usually the best one.
Hardin and Patrick aren’t alone in bracing for a lot Jonathan Tombes
more video. It’s the premise of Bob Scheffler’s timely Editor
discussion of King Content. (See page 26.) jtombes@accessintel.com
march2007
march2007
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10 march2007
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broadband By Ron Hranac, Senior Technology Editor
14
march2007
tujdsu_IVT_6
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Certification
SCTE has had a variety of technical cer-
tification programs available since the
1980s. Many cable operators have their
own internal training and certification
programs in place, but why not pursue
getting certified above and beyond what
your company may offer? Studying for
and successfully passing a certification
exam is a great way to demonstrate to
yourself and your peers your compe-
tency in one or more subjects. That
certificate says you know your stuff. It
gets you a little peer recognition. And it
just plain feels good when you find out
you passed the test.
This month’s column touched on just
a few ways you can be active in SCTE.
For more information about Society pro-
grams, visit www.scte.org.
16
march2007
18
march2007
telephony
Modem Termination System and the cus- the business was the leading parameter or network connectivity. Alternatively, it
tomer premises C-1100 or C-1200 Client that determined the type of system. With can provide Centrex-type business ser-
Transport Modem. It uses a 6 MHz chan- deregulation, businesses could own their vices from a PacketCable network if busi-
nel in the 88-864 MHz downstream spec- premises-based telephony switches, and ness features are part of the feature set of
trum and another 6 MHz channel in the cost and control became just as impor- its network. Whaleback is one company
5-42 MHz upstream. In the reverse path, tant. Today, PBXs are mostly sourced that offers the first type of solution, while
subscriber information is multiplexed on from private vendors or obtained from CedarPoint offers the second.
up to 14 narrowband tones. The multiple a service provider acting as a distributor The Whaleback CrystalBlue offering
tones provide immunity from “jammer” for a private vendor. Centrex-type service is a sort of hybrid between a customer
frequencies within the 6 MHz band. comes from a service provider. In both premises PBX and a hosted PBX service
cases, the service provider can be a cable that exists in a third-party network.
Potential gold mine company as well as a telco. A third flavor An on-premises processor handles call
For cable, business telephony is an un- of business telephony, hosted PBX, is also switching and feature provisioning, but
opened goldmine. In the beginning, the possible. Similar to Centrex service, a call completion is via a Whaleback gate-
only place to get business phone service hosted PBX is located in a network apart way accessed over a broadband link from
was the telco, and two flavors evolved. from the business being served. A hosted the business. In late January, Whaleback
Private branch exchanges (PBXs) are service, however, is usually based upon a announced a “bandwidth resiliency” fea-
telephony systems where the telephone network that only serves businesses. ture that provides hot swaps between
switch is located at the customer prem- Like T-1 implementations, business te- two broadband links to guarantee unin-
ises. Their cousin is Centrex Service, lephony can be provided by a cable com- terrupted service and/or route diversity.
where a group of lines in the same telco pany in two ways. A cable company can The business customer pays Whaleback
central office switch that serves residen- partner with an IP PBX vendor or with a flat monthly fee per phone line and a
tial customers is reserved for a business a hosted service, either as a distributor per-line activation fee, which includes
customer. Originally, the telco owned or in a marketing relationship where the unlimited U.S. usage and maintenance
either type of system, and the size of cable company provides access lines and/ for the processor and its feature software.
The cable company receives revenue for
each broadband line between the on-
premises processor and the customer’s
Internet service provider (ISP).
The CedarPoint Centrex offering is
completely based upon the cable com-
pany’s PacketCable-compliant switch. In
2006, CedarPoint added a set of business
features to its Safari product, to comple-
ment existing residential features. As such,
Safari provides much the same functional-
ity as traditional Class 5 switches with a
Centrex offering. Safari also offers trunk
connectivity to IP PBX offerings.
Lots of lakes
Going back to my glass of water analogy
from the beginning of the column, it
appears there are still a lot of commer-
cial services lakes to fill this column’s
waterglass, from both technology and
marketing perspectives. Add cellular to
the mix, and there’s no drought in sight
for a number of years.
20
march2007
Radiant Communications
ertion
s
el in
ann
h
alc
c
r lo
fo
g h
ou
systems of all sizes, the Eclipse Series is ideal for MDUs, hotels, hospitals,
Ser
Splitting wood, splitting nodes. It’s a rough analogy, but helps get heard estimate is that most nodes serve between 500 and 750
across several points. homes passed.
First, both are established practices, and even popular, given cold Operators have commended this technique publicly. It is one of
temperatures or bandwidth constraints. Second, both cover a range several reported “tools,” for instance, in Cox Communications’
of materials and techniques. Finally, as far as generating heat and extendable optical network (EON) initiative’s “tool kit.” Yet there’s a
bandwidth relief, both are limited in what they can achieve. downside. Cox Senior DOCSIS Engineer Ben Bekele said in a recent
That last point makes this topic controversial. You can’t get too far CT-hosted Webcast on DOCSIS 3.0 that reducing node splits would
into a discussion of node splits before hearing about alternatives. be a good thing. Why? “They cost a lot of money.”
22
march2007
What fiber?
Pulling a half-mile of fiber to a new node is not out of the question.
But increasing the number of fibers feeding optical nodes is a non-
starter. Standard counts, ranging from eight to six to four (which be-
comes two within-a-ring in ring architecture) are fixed quantities.
Even operators who budgeted spare fibers in rebuilds a decade
ago find themselves short today, having redeployed that glass to
homes or perhaps businesses that popped up in the interim. “The
point is, they are not there as spares anymore,” says Dawson.
march2007 23
24
march2007
THE Content
King
Royalty Awaits New
Propagation and
Distribution
Content is still king. Honoring that
king—or rather the many claimants to
that throne—calls for a propagation
and distribution network that
preserves the integrity of the
content/customer relationship.
S
eamless content on demand, mobile TV, seamless content mobility,
portable content players: All these popular concepts have in one thing in
common—content. With all eyes on content, now is the right time for the
cable industry to look upstream, beyond the headend, and toward the growing
numbers of content providers that are eager to make these concepts a reality.
In brief, it’s time to sketch the framework of a content propagation and distri-
bution network that preserves the integrity of the content/customer relationship
and provides a mechanism to enable future content types and delivery models.
26
march2007
march2007 27
T
works, cable companies, Web sites, and data is under 1 MB, or more than 1,000 One mechanism needed in the rules
individual consumers are all content provid- times smaller. This keeps the majority of framework is the ability to control ad-
ers these days. The challenge is to provide the propagation traffic the same for all vertising on a per-content basis. One of
the desired content to the desired device destinations, and only a small rules set the underutilized features of a modern
without annoying the many kings who pro- needs to be sent to individual headends. VOD server is the ability to insert adver-
vide said content. (See Figure 2.) tising on the fly. If each content object
The framework of a content propagation The rules are used to decide how the is marked with SCTE-35 messages flag-
and distribution network must preserve the EPG should be populated. In one geo- ging valid splicing points, a good VOD
integrity of the content/customer relation- graphic location, such as Phoenix, the server can place or replace the ads in the
ship and provide a mechanism to enable rules may specify that a specific content content object. This ad placement must
future content types and delivery models. object should be listed in the on-de- be made based on the content rules pro-
mand guide from noon until 4 p.m. In vided by the framework.
Philadelphia, the same content might Consider these examples. An adver-
gated back to the content provider to be listed from 4 p.m. until midnight. tiser may want a different ad spliced
facilitate adherence to licensing models
and enable appropriate royalty pay-
ment. This could be similar to a pay-
per view (PPV) model in some cases.
In any case, building the value of the
content provider will help us to better
serve our customers and provide a su-
perior experience.
Another critical but not-so-obvious
requirement involves separating meta-
data dealing with content from metadata
dealing with rules or scheduling. Take
the case of a localized program that has
one set of rules in Phoenix and another
set of rules in Philadelphia. Providing a
mechanism for localized rules allows dif- FIGURE 2: Content and rules metadata propagation and delivery
ferent content, different schedules and
different ads depending upon where the
content is made available. Or the case of Why? Let’s assume that the content in in if the content is viewed on a cell
specific ethnic centers, such as Toronto, question is a “Friends” episode. In Phoe- phone instead of a living room TV set.
Canada. This is quite a diverse popula- nix, Cox might be carrying a channel The ad rules can also specify lock-
tion, but completely different from San with “Friends” reruns starting at 5 p.m., outs or noncompliant ads. Or take our
Antonio. If a content provider had to while Warner Brothers (the studio or “Friends” example: Coke has product
schedule on a nationwide basis, it could WB network) may decide they want to placements in the content and might
not give a different piece of content in offer “Friends” on demand, but not to be a little upset if the operator spliced
these two different locations. Today, this compete with the Cox local channel in in a Pepsi ad. However, Coke may
problem is primarily solved with varying Phoenix. These rules allow the content want a “fresher” Coke ad than what
channel lineups within each market. provider, in this case Warner Brothers, was included in the original content.
The increasing popularity of on-de- to have the flexibility to schedule its on- The rules should specify which ads
mand content affords a simple means demand offerings. can stay, which can be replaced, and
to control different “avails” in different The content provider receives cer- what they can be replaced with. In
regions and so encourage a larger group tain benefits from such scheduling. a similar manner, some ads may be
of content providers. That in turn helps Dynamically adjusting the VOD sched- allowed for “trick mode” or fast-for-
expand service offerings and satisfy cus- ule helps “steer” the consumer to the ward, but some may not. These rules
tomers. A single content object can be most interesting or most valuable con- will greatly add value to the content
sent to all headends, or appropriate re- tent. Allowing content providers to provider, helping to maintain and
gional or local storage, but separate and schedule on-demand content, just as build their branding.
Cabl
28 march2007
Thoma
www.TNB.com
Thomas & Betts Communications Products Group 8155 T&B Blvd. Memphis, TN 38125 Tel: 800-685-9452 / 800-920-0328 / 901-252-5000
SAFARI C3 and Cedar Point Communications are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Cedar Point
Solutions, for Motorola. Reach him at BobS@motorola.com.
Communications. ©2007 Cedar Point Communications Incorporated. All rights reserved.
30
march2007
E
ach season has its jobs. And whether it’s winterizing the FCC rules
house, cleaning out the garage or shed in the spring, packing As for the first question, it’s the law, FCC law. Since 1985, cable
up for summer vacation, or getting ready for the opening of operators must completely drive out their plant four times a year,
hunting season in the fall, these tasks all have their own checklists. logging all leaks 20 µV/m and above. Since 1990, we must conduct
A hunting list, for example, might include a cleaned and oiled a driveout of at least 75 percent of the plant, and file a CLI report
gun, a case of 12-gauge shells, proper chokes, camouflage, license to the FCC showing all leaks 50 µV/m and above, indicating which
and bug spray. leaks are repaired and their locations. As an alternative to the annual
For cable operators, one field task comes around every quarter: rideout, a flyover of the plant is permitted.
monitoring essentially the entire plant for leakage exceeding Fed- But even if it were not the law, wise cable operators would vigor-
eral Communications Commission limits. Here’s a list of leakage ously repair their leakage anyway. Ingress can wreak havoc on a
equipment that should be familiar to many technicians: system’s return path and cause degraded signal quality in the down-
Yearly calibrated RF leakage meter stream. It can also interfere with an operator’s Internet performance,
Quarter-wave monopole antenna cut to the correct length for the as well as completely disrupt a system’s voice over Internet protocol
frequency being monitored (VoIP) service. With the 99.99 percent availability goal for voice,
Half-wave dipole for measuring leak before repair leakage and ingress mitigation areis? a necessity.
Calibrated test leak at office We are very familiar with the FCC rules for leakage. However,
FCC Web site for the new electronic filing there is a lesser known but very important rule in section 76.614
Driving gloves for hours of drive out that covers the cable regular monitoring. It states:
It’s a routine job, maybe too routine. Every now and then, it’s “A cable television operator transmitting carriers in the fre-
worth asking: “Why are we doing all of this? And is there anything quency bands of 108-137 and 225-400 MHz shall provide for
else to say about getting the job done?” a program of regular monitoring for signal leakage by substan-
32
march2007
march2007 33
Combinations
There will be situations where the rifle
and shotgun method will be combined.
This combination has precedent in leak-
age, specifically in the several cable
operators that combine a yearly CLI fly-
over with along with their ground-based
quarterly monitoring.
Most operators use one of their four
quarters to achieve their FCC requirements
with a ground-based CLI. The ones that
combine them prefer to have a snapshot of
the actual interference that only a flyover C
34 march2007
CM
MY
CY
CMY
May 7- 9, 2007
Mandalay Bay Convention Center
Las Vegas, Nevada
www.thecableshow.com
SHOW UPDATE:
General Session Speakers
Register NOW
for The Cable Show ‘07
www.thecableshow.com Peter Chernin Bob Iger Dick Parsons Brian Roberts
Questions? 202.222.2430 President & COO President & CEO Chairman & CEO Chairman & CEO
News Corporation The Walt Disney Company Time Warner Comcast Corporation
Spectrum Analyzer
Send it to rhendrickson@accessintel.com for possible
Company: JDSU
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Advanced Media Technologies _ _ _ 9 Power & Tel_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 36
ANGA Cable_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 37 Radiant Communications _ _ _ _ _ _ 21
ARRIS_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 7
Scientific Atlanta _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 2
Broadband Media Communications 19
Cedar Point _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 30 SCTE _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 31, 41
Comsonics_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 17 Spectrum Technical Services _ _ _ _ 43
CT Reports_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 6 Sunrise Telecom_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 11
JDSU _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 5 Test-Um/JDSU _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 15
MHz_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 4, 10, 12
Thomas & Betts_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 29
MHz_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 16, 20, 34
Motorola_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 25 Trilithic _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 44
NCTA _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 35 TVC _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 13
march2007 39
Keeping Expo
Practical and Valuable
SCTE Cable-Tec Expo will be one of the most worth- bandwidth; then in high-speed data, with equally
while professional opportunities that any cable engi- innovative new technologies to control, shape,
neer can experience in 2007. I am doubly honored—as monitor and expand our platforms and enhance the
this year’s Expo Program Subcommittee chair and as advantages of our return path; and then by examin-
a member of the Bright House Networks team that ing the other critical technical improvements and
serves the Expo ’07 host city of Orlando—to have challenges that face our key growth areas of video
worked with a great group of SCTE staff and industry on demand (VOD), voice over Internet protocol
volunteers in helping to shape the program to be valu- (VoIP), and other IP-based services that rely upon
able, practical, educational, and immediately appli- our carrier-class architectures.
cable for you and your customers. This is going to be a And we want to bring these key understandings
great Expo, and I am excited for everyone to attend! and new developments to you in a way that not just
Following in the footsteps of last year’s Expo chair, educates but also provides relevance and immediacy.
Chris Bowick, whom I personally admire, has been a We’re doing this by making SCTE Cable-Tec Expo
daunting task. Besides the goal of continuing the tra- 2007 practical, focusing on best practices that you
jectory of excellence for SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, there can apply immediately, brought to you by the most
are the challenges we effective speakers in
have been facing in “We have shaped our industry. Above
our industry, and mak- this Expo program all, we want to infuse
ing our Expo relevant the Expo 2007 pro-
for you and the other based on a lesson gram with an enthu-
10,000-plus expected that many of us have siasm that motivates
attendees meant incor- learned well: ‘Make you in the best profes-
porating, not avoiding, sional ways.
those challenges in the things easy for our We have shaped
body of our program. customers!” this Expo program
For example, we are based on a lesson that
seeing the growing influence and intersection of many of us, including our host Bright House Networks
regulatory policies upon the strategic and tactical Orlando team and their neighboring Tampa Bay col-
engineering decisions we are all making. This Expo, leagues, have learned well: “Make things easy for our
set for Tuesday through Friday, June 19-22, will occur customers!” In our increasingly competitive markets,
one month before the July 2007 FCC mandate for that objective has become a valuable field practice and
separable security in all our new leased set-top boxes, an effective technical design principle. It begins with
a policy issue that has occupied a lot of engineering the basics, including carefully completing integration
resources. We also are facing the issue of network tests to anticipate how our customers will experience
neutrality—the resolution of that debate will have our products, and from there requires a fervent desire
tremendous implications for our high-speed data to constantly learn and improve. This approach grows
platforms, services and architecture. our business and strengthens our platforms.
How do we tackle such challenges in the Expo It is a goal we all share—to continuously learn so
2007 program? By focusing on what we are doing we can provide the best services to our customers. In
that is most valuable for our customers. By look- that spirit, I look forward to welcoming you to SCTE
ing at the technologies and products that have Cable-Tec Expo 2007!
helped evolve our service set to take best advantage
of our HFC capabilities: First in our digital video Nomi M. Bergman is EVP, Strategy & Development, for
platforms, through new compression techniques Advance/Newhouse Communications. Reach her at NMB@
and other advances that exploit best our robust advancenewhouse.com.
40 march2007
400+ exhibitors
20+ technical workshops
Annual Awards Luncheon
Expo Evening
International Cable-Tec Games
Networking opportunities
10,000+ attendees
Register Now at
www.scte.org
CommTech Jeopardy All-Stars (l-r, top): Jason Farmer, Matthew ET 2007 Program Chairman Ray Sokola (top left) CTO, Motorola
Maddock, Michael Gates, Eric Somerset and Dennis Berris. Connected Home Solutions.
SCTE Cactus Chaper strategy meeting attendees: (standing l-r):
Terry Dockery, Rosa Rosas, Joey Patrick, Bull Lutz, Ron Cox VP Technology Jay Rolls (far left, on panel) moderator of the
Stoneburner, Manny Moreno, Suzanne Holzer, Dana Gilstrap, first of two sessions on “Service Velocity & Next Generation
Craig McCoach, Jay Blount, Ernie Spicer, Scott Owens; Architectures.” Joining him (l-r): Michael Patrick, Motorola; Russ
(seating l-r): Brenda Hunt, Jim Mess, Bob Riddle. Coffin, Nortel; Ben Bekele, Cox; and Alon Bernstein, Cisco Systems. DSA
Mai
with
PEOPLE Cap
O’Leary to Comcast Buchanan Joins CMC Skarica to Lindsay
• Dig
Comcast named Mark The Comcast Media Center (CMC) appointed Lindsay Broadband
O’Leary regional VP of Richard Buchanan VP of Operations. A 30-year named Christopher Skarica DO
Business Services. He veteran in video production, management VP of Engineering. He had Pac
will be responsible for and distribution for the entertainment and served as VP of global tech- ava
Comcast’s strategy for the enterprise markets, Buchanan will oversee the nical sales for Broadbus
• For
business services market in Central California. CMC’s services for traditional and new media, Technologies. Prior to that, he had served as
Among other positions, O’Leary has served including its linear and live event TV origination chief technology advisor for Nortel’s global sw
as EVP of Broadband Services at Excite@ business and emerging services, such as VOD, cable/MSO team. He has also held engineer- and
Home and VP Managed Network Services for eTV, iTV, and store and forward operations, ing management positions with Rogers, • Re
AT&T in Northern California. and the CMC’s advertising services. Maclean-Hunter and Cogeco Cable.
for
• Au
cer
Advanced Engineering
On-demand advertising; PacketCable roundup; DOCSIS Timing Interface (DTI)
Case Study
Fixed/mobile convergence and more ...
42 february2007
1-888-78-SWEEP
sales@spectrumtechnical.com • www.spectrumtechnical.com
CM
MY
CY
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