(Hickory, N.C.) Demonstrating their mutual drive to provide technical leadership for the industry, the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) and CommScope announce that they are partnering to offer training through SCTE Chapters and Meeting Groups on best practices for broadband installation and troubleshooting.

A new course, titled “Drop Installation Fundamentals: The Core to Network Reliability,” kicks off this new partnership and will instruct installers, both new hires and those needing to refresh their skills, on basic industry standards for properly performing a broadband installation.

Using an SCTE Pd (Professional Development)-approved curriculum, CommScope instructors will travel to any of SCTE’s 68 chapters and meeting groups to conduct the course in one four-hour session. The course will debut at the SCTE Great Lakes Chapter on Nov. 4 and will be available to all SCTE chapters in 2010.

The course will provide the dual benefit of helping installers achieve the highest standards of professional craftsmanship while equipping cable operators with a confident workforce that can promote and ensure the reliability of their networks.

Successful completion of the “Drop Installation Fundamentals” course will advance its attendees toward achieving the SCTE Broadband Premises Installer (BPI) certification. As an added benefit, CommScope will provide non-SCTE members who successfully complete the course with a one year SCTE membership.

“I am excited that CommScope and we at SCTE have put our heads together to address a critical industry need,” said SCTE President/CEO Mark Dzuban. “Communications networks, no matter how sophisticated, cannot function as intended without the upholding of basic competencies that are required of our industry’s technical workforce.”

The course will comprise a dozen objectives for students, including teaching them to recognize basic analog cable network configurations; describe how signal flows from the network to the customer’s television; demonstrate proper cable handling, preparation, and connectorization techniques of cables used within the drop system; and distinguish passive and active devices within the customer’s premises including discussing their functions and use.

“SCTE and CommScope share a vision for our industry to benefit from the successful installation of advanced broadband networks,” said Jim Hughes, executive vice president, Broadband Sales and Marketing, CommScope. “Our experience has shown that proper installation practices are a key element to system reliability and performance. A confident and skilled workforce will assist operators in reducing costly callbacks and improve subscriber satisfaction.”

More information about the content of “Drop Installation Fundamentals: The Core to Network Reliability” will be available at CommScope booth #7089 at SCTE Cable Tec Expo® 2009. Expo is set for Wednesday through Friday, Oct. 28–30 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. Information about Expo is available at http://expo.scte.org.

The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) is a non-profit professional association that provides technical leadership for the telecommunications industry and serves its members through professional development, standards, certification and information. SCTE currently has approximately 13,000 members from the U.S. and 70 countries worldwide and offers a variety of programs and services for the industry’s educational benefit. SCTE has 68 chapters and meeting groups and more than 3,000 employees of the cable telecommunications industry hold SCTE technical certifications. SCTE is an ANSI-accredited standards development organization. Visit SCTE online at www.scte.org. Follow SCTE on Facebook and Twitter.

CommScope, Inc. (NYSE: CTV)(www.commscope.com) is a world leader in infrastructure solutions for communication networks. Through its Andrew Solutions™ brand, it is a global leader in radio frequency subsystem solutions for wireless networks. Through its SYSTIMAX® and Uniprise® brands, CommScope is a world leader in network infrastructure solutions, delivering a complete end-to-end physical layer solution, including cables and connectivity, enclosures, intelligent software and network design services, for business enterprise applications. CommScope also is the premier manufacturer of coaxial cable for broadband cable television networks and one of the leading North American providers of environmentally secure cabinets for DSL and FTTN applications. Backed by strong research and development, CommScope combines technical expertise and proprietary technology with global manufacturing capability to provide customers with infrastructure solutions for evolving global communications networks in more than 130 countries around the world.