Broadband Industry Leaders Create Broadband Services Forum

Orlando, FL, November 19, 2004 - (HostReview) - The Broadband Content Delivery Forum (BCDF) and the Service Creation Community (SCC) announced today that effective January 1, 2005, the two organisations 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 organisations with common goals, membership and compatible programs," said Derek Kuhn from Alcatel and Chairman, Broadband Content Delivery Forum.  "As a combined organisation, 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 organisations. 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 organisation.

"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