56K modems tested, standards accelerated
Source: Network World
Network World via Individual Inc. : Deciding which 56K bit/sec modem to buy just got a little less agonizing.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) decided late last month to recommend a standard for the fast modem technology by January 1998.
That lops a year off the previously projected date for a single standard that the two competing technology camps can support.
U.S. Robotics, Inc. and Rockwell Semiconductor-Lucent Technologies, Inc. have developed separate technologies that do not interoperate, leaving users to worry about which one to buy if they want to connect to someone at the other end.
Hard numbers In addition to that worry, users have been told the modems will not work at 56K bit/sec because they need more power than the phone lines can handle. But users have not been given hard data.
But the first real-world performance numbers are in, and they are not so bad. In fact, 82.1% of calls were completed at 40K bit/sec or greater. 54% of the calls were completed above 45K bit/sec. The top speed reached 53.3K bit/sec, was hit only .3% of the time.
The measurements were made by MindSpring Enterprises, Inc. of Atlanta
between March 24 and April 2, from customers using 56K bit/sec modems
from U.S. Robotics.
The calls were made to the Net service providers' points of presence in Atlanta (40%), Birmingham, Ala.(15%), Raleigh, N.C.(6%), and Tampa, Fla. (9%), with the remaining calls made from scattered locations.
The sample of 5,986 calls came from at least 577 users, according to
Robert Sanders, chief technical officer at MindSpring.
[04-08-97 at 17:22 EDT, Copyright 1997, Network World] |
