PacketCable royalty-free IPR pool created Tom Foremski Cable Television Laboratories (CableLabs) has joined with more than a dozen other companies to form a royalty-free pool for intellectual property rights in the proposed PacketCable interface specification. The goal is to avoid IP disputes and help grow markets for products based on the technology. Cablelabs partners include 3Com, 8X8, Bellcore, Broadcom, Cisco ...

Cirrus Logic spins out communications product group Tom Foremski Cirrus Logic has spun out a new company, called Basis Communications, that will manufacture and sell Cirrus communications products as the parent company moves towards a fabless business model. Cirrus Logic said it will work closely with Basis to assure customer support through the transition, and will hold an equity position ...

Target Europe American chip firms are ready to make the R&D investments to compete in Europe. David Manners American semiconductor companies are eyeing up Europe as the best regional chip market on which to focus their resources. “A few years ago I would not have considered competing with Philips and STMicroelectronics because of the tariffs,” said Mike Hackworth, chairman and ...

Intel graphics chipset shakes market Tom Foremski Intel’s plans to introduce a core logic chipset with integrated 3D graphics will result in a shake out among graphics accelerator firms, claims market researcher Jon Peddie. Intel is expected to introduce its chipset, codenamed Whitney, in the spring of 1999. “Whitney will ruin the lives of some people,” said Peddie. “It will ...

ITU paves way for high speed modems Tom Foremski The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has approved the G.Lite ADSL standard, paving the way for a potentially huge market for high speed modems. The G.992.2 standard defines the specifications for modems capable of communication at speeds of up to 1.5Mbit/s. G.Lite modems operate over standard telephone lines and do not require ...

Ionica investor Alex Mayhew-Smith Ionica chairman Tony Coleman has said he expects to announce a strategic investor by the year end. The company, which was refused a bank loan earlier this year, has enough money to survive until mid-January. Shares in the telecoms operator rose from 8.75p to 14.5p following the news.

Political correspondent

Billing change Alex Mayhew-Smith Kingston-SCL’s Jupiter organisation has taken over the billing and customer services for BT Mobile’s 1.3 million subscribers. The project, which is worth ?40m, was initiated to cope with the increasing number of customers.

Vocalis Web talk Richard Ball Cambridge speech recognition expert Vocalis has developed a system whereby users can access Web sites using just a telephone. Vocalis’ service is called SpeecHTML. As the name suggests, it uses HTML, but without any extensions.

Act unawares Alex Mayhew-Smith Most UK companies remain unaware of the implications of the new Data Protection Act which recently came into force, according to Security Dynamics Technologies. The 1998 Act is designed to protect business customers of companies.