We've no price tag on today's Microsoft cable deal as yet, but it's an alliance with would-be broadband cable Internet provider At Home Corp., the US outfit that's aiming to provide services to small and medium-sized cable operators. As announced the deal is a strategic technology partnership intended to "accelerate the deployment of broadband Internet services." Microsoft provides At Home with "support and resources to assist in marketing," while the pair will combine to incorporate NT Server into AT Home's network. For Microsoft, At Home seems to be a bit of a punt. The company had 460,000 cable modem subscribers in North America as of the end of Q1, and so far hasn't exactly seemed to be storming the citadel. It has a pretty wide range of agreements with cable outfits (including AT&T, another recent Microsoft partner, and ultimately At Home's largest shareholder), and says 15 million customers in the US are capable of receiving its services. As the networks get upgraded, this number will increase, so the At Home subscriber numbers should increase in parallel. ®