V.90 Standard
ITU Standard Announced
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) announced on
February 6, 1998 that it approved a standard for 56k modems, called
V.90. The announcement ends a nearly year-long period of two
competing proprietary and non-interoperable standards, 3Com's X2 and
Rockwell/Lucent's K56Flex.
Most modem manufacturers are
offering free upgrades to the V.90 standard for those who have 56k
X2 or K56Flex modems. Only certain 33.6 modems are upgradeable to
56k and there is a usually a fee. See manufacturer
56k web pages for details.
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56k News
Summary
Bandwidth Battle
In a race to bring faster modems to market, modem manufacturers,
internet service providers and computer makers have squared off in a
battle of epic proportions over 56k technology.
US Robotics
US Robotics weighed in by announcing its X2 56k modem technology in
October of 1996. The first US Robotics 56k modems became available
in March, 1997. Cardinal Technologies sided with US Robotics and
shipped X2 compatible modems. Also siding with USR were Cirrus
Logic, Hatachi, AT&T Worldnet and some 400 internet service
providers.
Rockwell, Lucent et al
Meanwhile, Rockwell (the dominant maker of chipsets for modems with
about 75% market share) and Lucent Technologies (a spin-off from
AT&T) teamed up to offer a competing 56k modem technology.
Rockwell called its technology K56Plus and Lucent called its 56k
modem technology K56Flex. The two companies eventually cooperated on
K56Flex. In the Rockwell/Lucent corner were modem manufacturers
Hayes, Motorola, Microcom, Multi-Tech and ZyXEL, networking giant
Livingston and Bay Networks and computer heavyweights Compaq and
Hewlett Packard, as well as a host of Internet Service Providers
such as NetCom and Compuserve
Motorola
Motorola brought its first 56k modems to market in March 1997, just
after US Robotics. In an interesting turn, Motorola then announced
that its Tidal Wave program will offer 56k upgrades to both Motorola
SURFR series modem owners and to "any consumer who has
purchased a modem from vendors committed to X2 type technology [ie,
US Robotics and Cardinal], even if Motorola must provide them with a
new modem!" With offers like that on the table, clearly the
battle for dominance in 56k modem technology promised to be bloody.
3Com Buys US Robotics
In mid 1997, 3Com merged with US Robotics in Silicon Valley's
largest merger to date. Before the merger, 3Com had taken sides with
Rockwell and Lucent (opposite US Robotics) with regard to 56k
technology. Go figure.
Practical Peripherals Makes both
X2 and K56Flex
To hedge their bets, Practical Peripherals (owned by Hayes) and
Global Village offered some models in both X2 and K56Flex
technology.
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How 56k Modems
Work
It has long been thought that the
"theoretical limit" on modem speed over an ordinary phone
line was 33.6 kbps. 56k modems achieve their speed by avoiding a
conversion from digital to analog lines in the connection between
user and service provider. Ordinary connections begin over an analog
line, are converted to digital by the phone company and are
converted back to analog in the final segment before arriving at the
service provider. 56k connections begin analog, are converted to
digital and are not converted back to analog at the service
provider. This requires the service provider to have a direct
digital connection and therefore avoids one conversion of the
signal. By avoiding this second conversion, speeds of up to 56k and
faster are possible. Therefore, modems users need to know that they
can only achieve 56k if their service provider supports it.
Interestingly, FCC regulations
limit the speed to 53k, but modem makers are fast at work to
sidestep and/or waive this rule.
Just because 56k is possible,
doesn't mean that every user will achieve it. Poor local phone lines
and other conditions may limit speed. Users who are unable to
achieve 28.8 or 33.6 with their current service are unlikely to
achieve faster connections with a 56k modem.
56k modems download at speeds up to
56kbps, but can upload at only 33.6kbps.
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