Two organizations serving the cable broadband and video industry want to “combine forces.” The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) and its international arm International Society Broadband Experts (ISBE) propose to become a subsidiary of CableLabs.
The proposed SCTE CableLabs plans have 10G broadband “in mind,” CableLabs said. SCTE-ISBE describes itself as “the premier technology society in the cable telecommunications industry,” while CableLabs acts as the research and development arm for that industry.
The proposal calls for SCTE to become a subsidiary of CableLabs as of Januray 1, 2021 if the proposal is approved by SCTE members.
According to a web page about the proposal, benefits would include:
- Expanded availability of training, learning, development and certification programs to members of both groups
- Assurance that specifications, standards, training and deployment of both groups are more closely aligned with one another
- Leveraging strategic, technical and operational resources, and member and vendor relationships on a global scale and optimizing subject matter expertise and resources between organization that will increase value delivered across the industry
SCTE members will vote on the proposal to become a CableLabs subsidiary on December 10 in a Zoom meeting.
If the proposal is approved, there would be no change to SCTE or CableLabs names or trademarks. The organizations also have pledged not to lose any employees.
Mark Dzuban would remain president and CEO of SCTE and would report to Phil McKinney, president and CEO of CableLabs.
SCTE would continue its accreditation with the American National Standards Institute and its role as liaison with the International Telecommunications Union.
Kyrio, the unit of CableLabs that provides services such as testing and software for the cable industry, would “benefit from relationships developed across a larger universe of broadband providers representing SCTE’s membership, together with a larger vendor community,” a web page about the proposal notes.
It’s clear that 10G will be a key focus for SCTE and CableLabs, assuming the proposal is approved, as the technology is mentioned multiple times on the web page about the proposal. As customer bandwidth demand shows no signs of ending its ongoing climb, the cable industry is getting set to deploy the next-generation broadband technology.
