56K group to meet in April
Source: ComputerWorld
ComputerWorld via Individual Inc. : The Open56k Forum, a group of
vendors that have banded together to settle the standards issue
clouding recent 56K bit/sec. modem releases, plans to meet for the
first time in April.
A standards battle has arisen between U.S. Robotics Corp. on one
side and Lucent Technologies, Inc., Motorola, Inc. and Rockwell
Semiconductor Systems on the other. The com-panies' 56K bit/sec.
modems aren't currently compatible. So far, the standards war isn't
slowing users' interest in the new technology, which promises to
speed access to the Internet.
WAIT AND SEE
But some Internet service providers are waiting until the standards
issue is settled. For example, a spokesman for BBN Planet in
Cambridge, Mass., said BBN is testing the new modems but has no
plans to deploy the technology until the standards issue shakes out.
``We just think it's best to hang back until these issues are resolved,''
said Vaughn Haring, the BBN spokesman.
Trials of the new modemsare under way across the country. John
Brovitz, a spokesman for Epock Network, Inc. in Irvine, Calif., an
Internet provider, said Epock is testing Motorola's 56K bit/sec.
modems.
``So far, we're pretty happy with what we see,'' Brovitz said.
A spokesman for the Open56K Forum said the group hopes to have
its first meeting April 23 in New York. U.S. Robotics hasn't joined the
forum, but several companies, including Compaq Computer Corp.
and Hewlett-Packard Co., have signed up. U.S. Robotics is sending
representatives to the meeting, the forum's spokesman said.
Industry analysts said they doubt that the Telecommunications
Industry Association, the organization that will set the standards, will
decide on standards by June as planned.
``If you look at history and how long these things can take, I just think
it may be a year or more,'' said Kieran Taylor, an analyst at
TeleChoice, Inc. in Verona, N.J.
Vendors are slowly putting products with the new technology on the
shelves. The only vendors that have shipped modems are U.S.
Robotics which announced plans to merge with remote access giant
3Com Corp. in Santa Clara,Calif., earlier this month Hayes
Microcomputer Corp. and Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc.
But industry analysts said it is too soon to gauge the market.
``Products have only been on the shelves for a couple of weeks,''
said Lisa Pelgrim, an analyst at Dataquest in San Jose, Calif. She
said she believes that users will hold off purchasing the new modems
because of the standards battle. But purchases of 34K bit/sec.
modems will be slowed as users wait for a viable faster alternative,
she said.
Although some products are on the shelves, some glitches have
appeared in the process. Rockwell, which hoped to blunt the effect of
U.S. Robotics reaching market first, announced two weeks ago that
it was delaying shipment of its 56K bit/sec. modem chip sets
because of software glitches. That affected vendors such as
Motorola, which had hoped to start shipping modems with Rockwell's
technology.
Rockwell and Motorola officials said they hoped to ship modems by
this week.
<<ComputerWorld -- 03-31-97, p. 64,t>>
[04-07-97 at 13:38 EDT, Copyright 1997, ComputerWorld] |
