Rouzbeh Yassini
Rouzbeh Yassini (), known as the "Father of the Cable Modem", is an
Iranian-
American inventor, engineer, and author, who has gained 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 Founder and board member of the YAS Foundation. 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 lifetime 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".
Yassini was founder, CEO, and president of
LANcity,
the early pioneer in cable modems (acquired by
Bay Networks in 1996). He has worked with Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. (CableLabs) a research arm of the cable television industry in charge of the DOCSIS and on CableHome projects as the cable industry's point man on standardizing the cable modem's global footprint. He served as a senior executive consultant to the cable industry's CEOs while being president and CEO of YAS Corporation.
He also has worked with
Comcast and
Cablevision on numerous programs relating to innovation of broadband technologies. From 2004 to 2007, Yassini worked with the CTO's office at
Comcast to create the first industry standard IP-Set top Box specification known as the RNG specification. He has been involved in managing and advising companies ranging from $100 million to $50 billion and served as member of the board of directors on BAS (acquired by ADC in 2000), TrueChat (acquired by
Terayon in 2001), and Entropic from 2001 to 2008 (IPO 2007), and UPC Technical Advisory Committee. He created and chaired the Vendor and Operator Executive Advisory Forum of the U.S. Cable Center. He was a member of the Liberty Global Inc. (LGI) advisory technology board from 2001 to 2017. Yassini was director of
Visteon from January 2015 to December 2020. As CEO and Chairman of Irystec, a Montreal-based firm founded in 2015 specializing in perceptual display processing technology, Yassini was able to successfully have the french auto company Faurecia acquire the company in 2020, despite the Covid pandemic.
Working for more than 30 years in the broadband industry and achieving major accomplishments, Yassini received many awards from different organizations. In 2024, he received Technology & Engineering Emmy® Award, from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. In the same year, he was inducted to the Cable Hall of Fame. He also was inducted to the Light Reading Hall of Fame, in 2019. He was named multiple times as CED Broadband 50 designate. CED Magazine named him “1998 Man of the Year” for creating and fostering the multibillion-dollar cable modem broadband industry. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) awarded Yassini with a 2004 Vanguard Award, the Cable Industry's highest honor in recognition of his contributions and dedication to the industry. The Cable Television Pioneers also inducted Yassini into the class of 2012 for his tremendous and meaningful contributions to the cable industry. He is a member of the Lane Department Academy as well as West Virginia University Academy of Distinguished Alumni.
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