1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to cable networks and to telecommunications networks and, more particularly, to methods and systems that receive electrical signals from a cable network and communicate those electrical signals along a telecommunications network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Telecommunications is converging into broadband networks. Telecommunications networks in the past have been generally divided into three distinct groups: i) community antenna television networks, ii) local and wide-area computer networks, and iii) public-switched telephone networks. These three networks were independent of each other and delivered unique services to customers. The traditional cable networks, for example, delivered one-way video content, however, the cable networks did not offer telephony and data services. Telephone networks, similarly, did not offer analog and digital video services. Today, however, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 ushered in deregulation and permitted any telecommunications service provider to enter another's market. Because of this legislative enactment, the three separate telecommunications services are converging into a single broadband network and, thus, delivering a wide range of entertainment and data services.
While this convergence benefits consumers, this convergence presents problems for the telecommunications service provider. If a traditional telephone service provider, for example, wants to provide digital video and music content to their subscribers, the telephone service provider must first obtain the digital content. That is, the telephone service provider must obtain the music, videos, and other content to provide to customers. Obtaining this content, however, requires a heavy investment in an entertainment infrastructure. The telephone service provider must find and employ people with knowledge and experience in the entertainment industry. The telephone service provider must determine who is the target subscriber and what content satisfies that target subscriber. The telephone service provider must also obtain the intellectual property rights to legally provide this content. These simple but broad concerns often represent a very expensive investment in an infrastructure that provides content along a converged telecommunications network. There is, accordingly, a need for a less expensive alternative to converged networks, a need for telecommunications service providers to less expensively provide broadband content, and, in particular, a need for cable networks and telephone networks to provide broadband content without a large investment in separate and competing networks.