It was spring cleaning time and among my files I came across a project we did for a mid-sized MSO from 1996 to 1999. As I was thumbing through those folders (always a good way to procrastinate), I was struck by how many of today's cable services are ones that we anticipated back then.
      I was intrigued by a 1997 survey the MSO had done on home PC use by their TV subscribers. Their customers were quite sophisticated technologically. PC and Internet penetration were unusually high, due to high-income levels and the employers in and around their franchise area.
      The survey results were a reminder of how much has changed. Nearly all households reported a modem speed of 33.6 kbps or less. Most were still using DOS and two-thirds said they did not plan to purchase Windows 95 for their current or a new machine within the year.
      Our assignment was to help the senior executives plan the technology migration and strategy to carry the MSO into the 21st century. The franchise was coming up for renewal and our plan would be used both to convince the parent company to continue in the cable business and to win a renewal of the franchise. We were asked to create a comprehensive 15-year plan reflecting both revenues and costs.
      Renewing the cable infrastructure would represent a large part of the cost. When built nearly 15 years earlier it was state of the art, with dual 450 MHz cables, reverse amplifiers on all legs and fully two-way enabled. But it was still all coax, with amplifiers over 45 deep on some legs. Although modern when installed, it represented a challenge for advanced digital services and needed to be rebuilt with HFC.