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Archives
 November 1999 Issue
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Return Path
Road Runner Makes Cable Modem Installs Easier
By Jennifer Whalen
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| Jennifer Whalen |
If the cable industry ever hopes to reach penetration levels for its broadband data service equal to that of America Online's roughly 18 million subscribers, it will have to conquer the provisioning obstacle. Road Runner thinks it has solved this thorny problem.
The cable Internet service provider (ISP), headquartered in Herndon, Va., revealed that it has developed an online self-registration and service activation system that it intends to launch in MediaOne's Minneapolis market this month. By speeding up installation, Road Runner thinks it will drive its cable modem penetration from hundreds of thousands of users to millions of users. The system will roll out to other MediaOne and Time Warner affiliates throughout 2000.
Installation woes
"Up until this point, cable modem installation has been very labor intensive," said Ron Dobes, vice president of provisioning and systems engineering for Road Runner.
Customer service representatives spend considerable phone time determining if service is available in a customer's location, discovering whether the customer's computer meets the minimum requirements for service and scheduling an installation appointment. Frequently, two installers visit a customer-an RF technician to perform the cable modifications, and a personal computer (PC) technician to configure the computer and modem. "This is not a model for moving forward for millions of users," Dobes said.
Through a series of Web-based prompts, the new system allows the prequalification efforts to occur online, without intervention of an agent. An RF installer still visits the residence to modify the cable plant, but the modem and PC configuration, as well as the service activation and billing system integration, now occur online. So, installs that had taken two technicians two hours to complete now will take 30 minutes. Customers also can make changes and additions to their existing service via the online system.
Objective: Growth
"Our objective is for service activation to be no more complicated than AOL," said Carl Rossetti, Road Runner's chief executive officer. Road Runner currently is adding about 10,000 new customers each week. "We can easily see this moving us to 50,000 new customers a week in less than a year," Rossetti added. The cable ISP exceeded 420,000 subscribers at the end of the third quarter.
The automated systems also will help alleviate the backlog of customers who have ordered service, but have yet to be turned up. "We have one month's worth of backlog at any one time," Rossetti said. "This opens the sales gate. Right now (cable operators) are managing sales against the installation capacity. This ratchets up the installation capacity."
Any development that pushes more bandwidth onto Internet backbones is good news for vendors in the broadband industry. With more customers expected to buy the service as provisioning gets easier, network capacity requirements are sure to increase. Currently, Road Runner's backbone carries roughly 10 GB of traffic per week, with the average user generating 4-5 kB of traffic a week. Low-speed dial-up subscribers, however, consume only 1 kB of traffic a week, reports Road Runner.
Why now?
Why is the time suddenly right for automated provisioning? The stellar success this year of CableLabs' modem certification efforts is the biggest driver. Currently, 11 cable modem vendors have passed CableLabs' interoperability tests, which certify that the modems comply with the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS). Each month, additional modems receive certification. DOCSIS-compliant modems already are hitting retail shelves, and more will follow as manufacturers and retailers gear up for the Christmas selling season.
"This is an example of the value of DOCSIS," Dobes said. "It allows us to develop one technical solution to provision the modems from all vendors." 0
Road Runner estimates that 42 percent of its affiliated systems currently are DOCSIS-compliant. The industry as a whole will be aggressively moving to DOCSIS systems in 2000.
Another key factor supporting self-activation is the fact that many new PCs, such as those offered by Road Runner partner Compaq, come with Ethernet network interface cards (NICs) preinstalled. This eliminates the need for the technician to crack open the PC to install the NIC.
A little help from our friends
Road Runner didn't develop and engineer its auto-provisioning system on its own. Multiflow Technologies developed the prequalification technology used in the system, and Cisco Systems developed the provisioning middleware-dubbed the Subscriber Registration Center-used for service activation.
Cisco has big plans for its Subscriber Registration Center middleware and views it as a foundation for a multimedia future that includes a complex mix of data, voice and video services, reported Paul Bosco, Cisco's vice president and general manager of cable products and solutions. The company has a five-phase plan for adding more functionality to the middleware so that it can be used with the next generation of set-tops, game players and other emerging thin-client devices for the home to provision voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) and video-on-demand (VOD) services.
In its current phase, cable operators also can use the middleware to offer multiple tiers of high-speed data service. Currently, cable modem services run about $49.95 a month. "We may decide to offer an entry level price where we would set the modem at a different bit rate and offer fewer e-mail addresses," Bosco explained. "Or we could offer business users quality of service (QoS) guarantees. This allows you to do that."
With the pressure on to differentiate services and quickly deliver bundled voice, video and data, provisioning middleware such as Cisco's Subscriber Registration Center will play an increasingly important role.
Jennifer Whalen is editor of "Communications Technology."
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