By Guy W. Beakley and Alex B. Best, Scientific-Atlanta, Inc.
In practically every cable franchise being awarded today, the recipient is required to install an "institutional B cable" to serve the communication needs of the business community. Although to date very little use is being made of this non-entertainment cable, industry predictions indicate an explosive growth for business communications over the next ten years. The purpose of this paper is to identify and explain the characteristics of this potentially large business market, and to give an overview of the techniques and equipment requirements for the business/ cable and cable/earth station interconnect. It seeks to alert franchise operators that the time to prepare for serving this market is now, when they are applying for franchises and building and rebuilding their cable system.