William Kostka to Head Cable-Modem Project

Louisville, Colo.-Cable Television Laboratories Inc. said it promoted William Kostka to head its cable-modem project.

He will have the title of director, broadband services.

CableLabs also announced a number of personnel additions across its technical-projects and service-support departments.

Kostka, who joined CableLabs in 1997, had been a director and senior architect working on the cable-modem project.

He was a critical contributor to the development and expansion of the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification platform, including transport architecture for both DOCSIS 1.0 and 1.1, advanced physical-layer protocols, computer-controlled cable modems (sharing the PC's processor) and product certification.

Most recently, he was involved in developing an integrated cable-network architecture, consolidating the platforms for high-speed data, digital video and Internet-protocol multimedia services.

Other new employees added recently to the modem initiative at CableLabs include Thomas Gallagher, Greg Matheny,

Cynthia Metsker and Alex Katsnelson. Gallagher, who joined CableLabs in March, is director, broadband-test program for the DOCSIS process.

Other staffers were named to the OpenCable and PacketCable projects, as well as to the legal and human-resources departments.