Rouzbeh Yassini "Father of the Cable Modem", is an Iranian-American author,inventor,and engineer,who has gained an international reputation as a "broadband visionary"for his pioneering work in broadband industry and inventing the cable modem,establishing the cable modem industry standards (DOCSIS) through Cable Television Laboratories (CableLabs), the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).He is Executive Director of the University Of New Hampshire Broadband Center Of Excellence and the CEO of YAS Capital Partners.Yassini is the author of “Planet Broadband” (Cisco Press, 2003), a humanized look at broadband technology and its contributions to the society,as well as “Broadband Intelligent Series”, a series of white papers on digital services (voice, data, video).He is a worldwide speaker and is often interviewed and quoted in the press for his vision on the future of broadband.His life time vision and dream is that all the people in the world have ubiquitous access to the broadband and be connected all the time. He believes that broadband connectivity is a fundamental right for all the human beings, what he has referred to it frequently as "Broadband Equality".
Rouzbeh Yassini,Born in Tehran, Iran, Yassini went to Kharazami high school and attended University of Pahlavi for one year before immigrating to the United States in 1977. Settling in Morgantown, WV, he continued his education at WVU, pursuing a bachelor degree in Science and Electrical Engineering. As a senior, he was fascinated by the burgeoning satellite communications industry, and toiled with classmates to build one of the first 3.7 – 4.2 GHz down converters.
Upon graduation in 1981, he was recruited by General Electric, the place that entered him into high-tech industry.In 1984 he had his first brush with the cable TV industry, working with GE’s Comband division developing the company's first 5,000-gate custom designed set-top chip. After numerous promotions, as the "Engineering Manager for Cable TV systems and microwave" he left GE in 1986 to work for Proteon a data networking company manufacturing token ring networking products like routers and bridges.
It was at Proteon, that the idea of using the same cable for transmitting video and data came to him. Though, people told him video and data couldn't mix. From 1988 to 1990 he oversaw Applitek, a data networking company, as president and CEO where he was persuaded that mixing video and data is possible, although the vision remained on hold until 1990 when he bought Applitek's assets and formed LANcity where the cable modem was born and the DNA of broadband was built.
2013: Established Broadband Center of Excellence at UNH to empower the world with Ubiquitous Broadband.
2013: Inducted to WVU Distinguished Alumni class of 2013.
2012: Inducted to Cable TV Pioneer class of 2012, and Cablevision Executive Award
2011: Endeca Acquired by Oracle (1997 Investment)
2010: Broadsoft - VOIP- IPO (2000 Investment)
2009: Wild Blue (Satellite Internet access) was acquired by Viasat (1999 Investment)
2008: Created Yassini Broadband Knowledge Center (Broadband Research Center)
2007: Entropic - Home Networking silicon vendor – IPO 2007 (2001 investment)
2006: Honorary PhD in Science and Technology from Merrimack College, N. Andover, MA
2005: Inducted as the youngest member of the WVU Lane Department of Academy
2004: The NCTA awarded Yassini with a 2004 Vanguard award, The Cable Industry’s highest honor, in recognition of his contributions and dedication to creating the first ever industry standards
2003: Honorary Ph.D. in Science from West Virginia University
2003: Chair of The Cable Industry’s first Vendor & Operator Executive Advisory Forum
2002: CED Broadband Top 50 leadership designates to lead 3 separate DOCSIS versions in less than 40 months
2001: Enabled and managed the development of the state-of-the-art DOCSIS 2.0 symmetrical services worldwide
2000: Created and Introduced DOCSIS 1.1 Standards to the industry
1999: Principal contributor behind retail (CE) availability of DOCSIS 1.0, marking the cable industry’s first-ever cable modem certification process in which a consumer product met a cable industry standardized specification
1997-99: CED Magazine named him "1998 Man of the Year and “father of Cable Modem" for creating and fostering the cable modem “Broadband”. Innovated first ever industry standards process that led to creation of worldwide DOCSIS standards & certifications through the Cable Television Laboratories and SCTE which led to its acceptance by the ITU in 2000. These standards are pillar of Multibillion dollars Broadband industry revolution
1996–present: Founder, CEO of YAS Capital Partners LLC. The firm has created 9+ start-up companies that have been either sold ($10M to $2.3 B) or IPO. Firms provides CEO consulting to Service provider
1990-96: Founder, CEO & President, LANcity Corporation (Created the Broadband Industry via its innovation and creation of first Cable Modem). LANcity was purchased by Nortel (Bay Networks) in 1996
1988-89: Turn-around a $30 M investment in badly run Applitek to a successful acquisition by LANcity
1986-88: Developed first intelligent Network hub as Dir. of Engineering, Proteon Inc.
1981-86: Build first ever digital TV platform with ITT at General Electric as well as member of team for first ever Bandwidth Compression Set- Top-Box. Member of GE Financial Management Program
