TCA Cable TV Inc. has agreed to acquire a locally based
Internet-service provider as a prelude to launching the high-speed offering in its
hometown of Tyler, Texas.
The MSO said last week that it has signed a letter of
intent to acquire Web International Inc., an ISP currently offering Internet-access
service to some 5,000 consumers in Tyler and Longview, Texas, under the name,
"Internet Tyler."
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
TCA will launch Internet-access service over cable later
this year to its 31,000 subscribers in Tyler, where it has begun testing TeraPro cable
modems designed by Terayon Communication Systems.
Robert A. Roseman, TCA's vice president of business
development, said the TeraPro modems are expected to make the MSO the first cable operator
to offer Internet access over a completely coaxial system.
"The significance of this is that our system is all
coaxial, and not rebuilt with fiber," Roseman said. "We think that this will be
the first time that anybody has used two-way cable modems over a system that has not been
rebuilt."
