The Comm/Scope subsidiary of General Instrument Corp, New York is putting its co-axial cable business into a joint venture with the fibre optic cable business of the Alcatel North America subsidiary of Alcatel NV as the minority partner: the venture will do cables for local area networks and for cable television systems, and General Instrument will receive $70m in cash and a $110m note convertible into shares of the new firm to give it control.