Cisco launches products for home

Cisco Systems, the leading provider of equipment used by businesses to build Internet-based networks, has announced in the US a major new push into the home.

Debuting the first in its new line of home products, Cisco will unveil at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas a device which, when connected to a regular television cable, provides two phone connections and four high-speed Internet connections simultaneously.

Cisco is viewed by IDA Ireland as one of the last "missing links" in the computer networking systems sector. The agency regards Cisco as a prime target. It already has a presence in Ireland, with a sales office in East Point Business Park in Dublin.

Cisco has also announced a preliminary agreement with AT&T on a nearly $100 million (86 million) contract to help AT&T build an infrastructure capable of delivering voice, video and telephone services over cable TV lines. AT&T is close to acquiring an extensive cable network through a merger with cable giant Tele-Communications.

"Today you get cable TV, long-distance phone service, local phone service and Internet access from four different providers," said Robba Benjamin, general manager of Cisco's newly created Consumer Line of Business. "This [technology] will enable AT&T to offer all four on one bill."

The cable modem, which is the first to offer regular voice connections, will sell for about $1,000 and is aimed at home offices. But Cisco is also licensing its technology to consumer electronics companies like Sony, Hitachi and Samsung, which will offer similar products for the consumer market later this year.

Cisco believes that over time Internet service, cable TV providers and others will offer telephone services to their customers as a free add-on to their basic services.

Cisco plans to work with a broad range of partners to create a new "personalised network" that will make it easy to connect personal computers, televisions, phones and other appliances to each other and to the Internet.

Cisco said it was putting together a team of partners to make the technology happen. One set of Cisco partners, for example, will provide the technology to connect Internet devices in the home using wireless, electric or phone lines. Others will produce Internet-capable phones and other Internet appliances.