Canadian cable leviathans Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications announced Thursday they could begin to carry the @Home cable-modem service to 2 million Canadian homes by the end of this year, giving the flagging American high-speed access venture a necessary jolt.
The new WAVE-@Home service will offer Internet access through the Canadian cable system, which will link to @Home's dedicated network architecture. Currently, Rogers and Shaw service more than 4 million cable customers, with over 3,000 cable-modem users already on the system for more than a year. To get access to the system, homes must be set up with the WAVE system - a modem and two-way switch upgrades.
The advantage of the @Home system is the speed of delivery - about the same or faster than a T1.
"The objective is to push the content as close to the customer as possible to provide the fastest, most consistent experience," says Frank Cotter, VP and general manager of Rogers Communications. "We have an extremely successful business, and we want it to continue - and we have to deliver on our promise of speed to our customers," says Cotter. Partnered with Rogers and Shaw, @Home gets a big asset, says Cotter: "access to our eyeballs."
@Home is clearly struggling to get more nimble in the marketplace with WAVE-@Home, following another announcement earlier this week, of a new @Work network to slice into the corporate intranet market. The deal solves many of the major problems for @Home, says John Aronsohn at The Yankee Group, because "[@Home] has very little power until the cable service decides to fund it. They're in a very difficult position until they do."
From the Wired News New York Bureau at FEED magazine.
