Broadband Industry Leaders Create Broadband Services Forum

Broadband Industry Leaders Create Broadband Services Forum
Group Will Work on Standardization and Business Delivery Model of Broadband
Services 


ORLANDO, Fla., Nov. 17  /PRNewswire/ -- The Broadband Content Delivery Forum
(BCDF) and the Service Creation Community (SCC) announced today that effective
January 1, 2005, the two organizations will merge to form the Broadband
Services Forum.  The Forum will foster dialogue across the broadband value
chain, including content, service and technology providers.

The Broadband Services Forum (BSF) will serve as the international industry
resource for providing tools and information to address the fundamental service
and technology issues that impact the growth and health of the broadband
industry.  The efforts of the Forum will be focused on enabling:

                  -- Innovative high value services
                  -- Reduced time to deployment
                  -- Unified services and applications experience
                  -- Network and device agnostic service delivery
                  -- Simplified multi-service architecture
                  -- Business tools and rationales



"Members of the BCDF and the SCC found that the two groups had grown into
complementary organizations with common goals, membership and compatible
programs," said Derek Kuhn from Alcatel and Chairman, Broadband Content
Delivery Forum.  "As a combined organization, the BSF provides a strong
extended network of people that can be leveraged to address forum work plans
and provide valuable thought leadership."

Craig Forbes from net.com and Chairman, Service Creation Community, noted, "We
have been growing the SCC in terms of membership and activities this year. One
of the strategic objectives has been to increase our collaboration with other
organizations. When we met with the BCDF, there was immediate synergy. Joining
forces was the easy decision to make."

Kuhn will serve as chairman, and Forbes as vice-chairman, of the interim board
of directors of the new organization.

"Many service, content and application providers face a common set of issues
with broadband services," said Dave Hook, Business Strategist, BT Wholesale. 
"No other Forum addresses the collective set of issues across the broadband
industry and provides a complementary component to other industry forums, and
BT is pleased to play a role."

The formation of the BSF comes at a time of significant change in the
telecommunications industry. Pascal Debon, President, Carrier Networks, Nortel,
commented, "There is a clear-cut need to evolve from looking at broadband
access as just a connectivity service, and instead focus on developing a set of
value-added services that are enabled through broadband and IP technologies. 
As a founding member of the BCDF, we are committed to continuing this work with
our fellow members within the BSF toward a common goal."

Another vital leg of membership in the BSF is the industry analyst community,
both from an advisory capacity and in gaining first-hand industry insight from
other members.

"The BSF has a unique opportunity to influence the industry, especially with
its wide array of membership," said Ron Westfall, broadband analyst, Current
Analysis.  "It provides smaller technology companies with access to larger
vendors, fosters business development opportunities among members, and will
keep members, including developers and service providers, apprised of and
directly involved in what is going on in the industry. We view the thought
leadership that the BSF provides as a strong positive."

Membership Roster

Accenture, Airespace, Inc., Alcatel*, Aliant Telecom*, Ascendent
Telecommunications, Inc., Bridgewater Systems, British Telecommunications,
Cincinnati Bell, Current Analysis, ECI Telecom, Engenio Information
Technologies (formerly LSI Logic Storage Systems), Epicenter Inc., Goldman,
Sachs, & Co., Harris Corporation, InStat/MDR, IP Infusion, Juniper Networks*,
Maranti Networks*, MeTV Networks, Inc., Micromuse, Microsoft Corporation*,
Motorola, NDS UK Ltd., net.com*, Nortel*, On Demand Group Limited*, Operax,
Oracle*, PacketExchange, Philips Consumer Electronics, Sandial Systems, Inc.,
Siemens*, SkyStream Networks*, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Sprint,
Telechoice, Telekom Austria AG*, The Hatchery, Thomson, Tony Fisch Consulting,
Vista Advisers, Walt Disney Internet Group, Wandl Inc., Welsh Development
Agency, Xanthum Partners, Yipes.

*Seats held on board of directors

For more information, please visit http://www.broadbandservicesforum.org/ 

DATASOURCE: Network Equipment Technologies, Inc.



CONTACT:  Brenda Ropoulos of net.com, [phone], or cell,

[phone], or ; or Matthew Marnik of Broadband

Content Delivery Forum, [phone], or cell, [phone], or

; or membership, Florencia Dazzi of Broadband

Services Forum, [phone], or 



Web site:  http://www.broadbandservicesforum.org/

Web site:  http://www.net.com/

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