The capacity offered by broadband cable is widely seen as a sine qua non for the success of any information superhighway, and on that basis, the cable television operators are some way ahead of the phone companies. Accordingly, Cisco Systems Inc has been making acquisitions and investments to build up a portfolio of products for cable operators, and yesterday, it announced that it would buy an equity stake in privately held Terayon Corp, without revealing terms.Terayon, based in Santa Clara, has developed a Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access system intended to accelerate the use of cable television systems for Internet access, electronic commerce, education and related services: the technology is claimed to eliminate the barrier cable operators are experiencing in carrying cost-effective high-speed digital video traffic over their existing cable networks. In return for its funds, Cisco will use Terayon’s technology to create an integrated cable-based digital communications module for Cisco products, working with Terayon on design, manufacture and marketing of a head-end cable delivery system that incorporates Cisco’s hardware and software expertise. The agreement would also give it a seat on the Terayon board.
