It now appears that efforts are on to discredit the ratings system further.

Industry sources say that recently two individuals claiming to be the representatives of Star India contacted a few households that are a part of the TAM Media peoplemeter sample in Lower Parel in central Mumbai.

The sources say that the two offered money to the households to watch Star shows like Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki. The incident took place last week, the sources say. According to them, two of the households which were approached accepted the money. Indian Television has learnt that Rs 500 was what was offered.

The same team reportedly went to TAM peoplemeter homes in the western Mumbai suburbs of Dahisar and Bandra.

Apparently TAM officials are aware of the sample being contacted and have questioned them. Though no official was available for comment, TAM is reportedly investigating the incident.

Star India also refused comments on the issue.

The news is expected to either break on a television channel, a website or be presented to industry in the next two days.

The credibility of the TRP system issue has again come under the spotlight with business daily "Economic Times" reporting today that Zee Telefilms broadcasting CEO Sandeep Goyal has written a letter to ORG-MARG CEO Titoo Ahluwalia saying the publication of TAM/Intam ratings must be suspended immediately as Zee has reasons to believe the data by TAM/Intam is "seriously influenced".

For cable operators focused on increasing new services and capacity within their existing networks, Scientific-Atlanta and Pacific Broadband Communications (PBC) have announced the launch of two solutions for getting the most out of existing bandwidth.

Based on ultra-dense ASIC and CMTS technology developed by Pacific Broadband Communications, the new Prisma? G10 Cable Modem Termination Systems (CMTS) and Prisma IP? CMTS Line Card will form the basis for scalable data deployment that allows a DOCSIS 1.0 cable network to harness bandwidth previously unavailable, while providing an easy migration path to DOCSIS 1.1 and DOCSIS 2.0, a company release says.

The relationship will combine PBC‘s high performance CMTS technology with the worldwide service structure and cable industry experience of Scientific-Atlanta. Specifically, the parties have agreed that Scientific-Atlanta has exclusive marketing and distribution rights for North America and non-exclusive worldwide distribution rights for the Prisma G10 CMTS and Pacific Broadband Communications has rights to market, sell and support the CMTS to cable operators outside North America.

Prisma G10 CMTS - Addressing the needs of network operators with an installed base of cable modems where traffic and penetration growth is beginning to exceed CMTS capacity, the stand-alone Prisma G10 CMTS solves the problems of upstream bandwidth and router performance limitations within existing high-speed data networks. By leveraging PBC‘s carrier class C MTS, Scientific-Atlanta‘s Prisma G10 provides operators with an ultra-dense solution of 32 downstream channels and 128 upstream channels, enabling cable operators to support more cable modem traffic with less bandwidth, according to the release.

Prisma IP CMTS Line Card - The Prisma IP CMTS Line Card is based on a CO-development effort, announced earlier this year, between the two companies and will be integrated with Scientific-Atlanta‘s Prisma IP optical transport platform. For network operators establishing converged networks, the new CMTS is a metro optical transport solution that integrates a CMTS line card to eliminate additional routers and optical transport equipment normally required for a DOCSIS 1.1 or 2.0 deployment - effectively increasing subscriber penetration of data services without expensive reconfiguration of hubs and nodes.

These Prisma CMTS solutions leverage PBC‘s custom-built chips to deliver superior RF performance, allowing existing networks to use 16 QAM transmission within 3.2 MHz segments, effectively doubling or quadrupling the upstream data throughput. This is combined with the ability to allocate multiple channels per port for the industry‘s highest per port throughput. The increase in throughput supports more cable modems per port, thus significantly lowering the cost of the CMTS on a per cable modem basis.

The Prisma CMTS solutions further employ enhanced packet processing technology to eliminate data routing bottlenecks. While the Prisma G10 CMTS will be available by the end of 2001, the Prisma IP CMTS will be commercially available next year.