Thanks Glen, I read that earlier somewhere?
15:22 [BAY] ROCKWELL FILES SUIT VS BAY NETWORKS ALLEGING BREACH OF CONTRACT.
I wonder what this is about?
BellSouth launches 56-kilobit Net service
ATLANTA (Reuters) - BellSouth said Tuesday it is rolling out 56 kilobits-per-second Internet access for its BellSouth.net
Internet service.
The service, the fastest dial-up access currently available with ordinary phone lines, is gradually being rolled out by most
major Internet service providers.
The 56k technology allows Internet users to access the World Wide Web, electronic mail and other electronic information
quicker than the current 28.8k speed that is available to most consumers. The faster service makes animated graphics and
video delivered via the Internet work better, and speeds download times for software sent over the network.
BellSouth's service is currently available to BellSouth.net customers in Orlando and Miami, Fla., Birmingham, Ala., and
Nashville, Tenn.
The telecommunications company plans to offer 56k access in all markets by the end of the first quarter of 1998. There is no
additional charge for the higher-speed access.
The company also said Zoom Telephonics Inc will offer BellSouth.net customers $25 or $30 rebates on 56K modems.
One of BellSouth's main competitors in the Internet access market, AT&T WorldNet, last week said it was launching its
high-speed service and plans to offer it nationwide to all customers by the middle of next year.
AT&T began its service 11 cities and plans to equip 15 more cities with the high-speed capability by the end of November.
While the 56K modem market is starting to grow, competing technical formats have made consumers leery, with 3Com and
Rockwell in a legal dispute over the high-speed modems. Some manufacturers have begun to offer free upgrades to whatever
standard is finally accepted, so their modems will work regardless of who wins the technical battle.
Meanwhile, even faster modem systems are in the works. Diamond Multimedia Systems plans unveiled last month for a
proprietary technology it says can double the speed of current analog Internet links by using two standard phone lines at
once.
That capability, which Diamond dubs Shotgun, provides speeds up to the 112 kilobits per second (Kbps) speeds -- double
the 56 Kbps speeds of the fastest analog modems that have only begun to be widely available this year. And cable
companies are starting to roll out high-speed cable modems.
A modem is the device used to connect stand-alone computers to telephone lines so they can communicate with other
computers, especially those linked to the Internet.
(Reuters/Wired)
Zoom and Diamond are 56KFlex modems.....
JJ |
