Modem Makers
by Brian McWilliams, PC World News Radio
December 5, 1997
Standards have won out over greed: That's the word today from Orlando, Florida, as representatives of major 56-kbps modem manufacturers reached a key compromise that clears the way for interoperability between all 56-kbps modems.
Ken Krechmer, technical editor of the Communications Standards Review, said the deadlock was broken after big modem vendors 3Com, Rockwell, Motorola, and Lucent agreed to a compromise proposed by a company that doesn't even make 56-kbps modems: Intel. The chipmaker was able to convince all interested parties to agree on a standard method for handling what are called data mode functions. But it was coaxing from
consumers that really forced modem vendors to give up their greed and agree to compromise.
As Krechmer puts it, "The reason people came to agreement here is because the market is applying pressure, saying 'we're a little nervous and until we get a standard, we're not making big buys.'"
Having the key issues resolved clears the way for a draft standard when the International Telecommunication Union meets in Geneva at the end of January. According to Krechmer, modem vendors will move swiftly after that date to roll out products incorporating the standard. Which means that 56-kbps modems will begin to speak the long-awaited common language, called V.PCM.
The international standard may not be official until next September, but telecommunications analyst John Navas says modem vendors could be showing V.PCM-compliant modems by Comdex in spring 1998.
Still, Navas says, thorny legal issues could keep the chill on the 56-kbps modem market. Most threatening is the patent infringement lawsuit brought by inventor Brent Townshend against Rockwell.
"It's not beyond possibility that a court could hold that Rockwell is infringing the patent and order it to pay up or stop shipping," says Navas. "Would that derail a standard? No, but it's not good news for consumers, because it still casts a shadow."
And having a 56-kbps standard nearly in hand doesn't mean modem vendors will give up their cutthroat marketing. Even today, Rockwell issued a press release that suggested the compromise in Florida favors Rockwell's K56flex technology, calling it "an overwhelming endorsement of K56flex-supported technologies."
But according to Krechmer, that's simply untrue: "We made a compromise that split the difference between the two camps."
The compromise, says Krechmer, should make it relatively easy for all 56-kbps modem vendors to make good on their promises to upgrade existing products to the eventual ITU standard.
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