First introduced in the late 1800s to save the strain on horses hauling carts up the city's steep inclines, the 15, 500-pound cable-powered cars grip a continuously moving underground cable with pliers-like gear to travel the streets of San Francisco.
The company offers gear designed to help cable and phone companies squeeze more video capacity out of a limited amount of bandwidth as consumers watch video clips on their computers, demand more channels from their cable companies, and even start to watch television on their wireless phones.