Front page of today's NY times:
3 Computer Giants Join Phone Companies to Connect to Internet at Warp Speed
By SETH SCHIESEL
Three titans of the personal computer industry have joined with most of the nation's largest local telephone companies to enable consumers to receive Internet data over regular telephone lines at speeds much higher than are currently possible, according to executives involved with the alliance.
Compaq Computer Corp., Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. intend to unveil the venture next week at a communications conference in Washington, the executives said.
The formation of the new group is one of the most significant early moves in what promises to be a years-long battle between telephone companies and cable television companies for control of how consumers get high-speed access to the Internet.
The executives said the three companies, which set much of the agenda in the computer industry, have teamed up with GTE Corp. and with four of the five Bell telephone companies to set technical standards for the next generation of access to cyberspace.
The group wants to have modems and software based on the new standards on store shelves by Christmas, the executives said. If the group succeeded in popularizing the technology, consumers could get data like World Wide Web pages from the Internet and other advanced services at speeds up to 30 times faster than today's fastest modems deliver. Pages that now take minutes to view would appear on a computer's screen almost instantly.
The products envisioned by the consortium would essentially be new modems either installed inside a computer or sitting alongside one. Most important, perhaps, they would plug into normal telephone lines but would remain connected to the outside world at all times without the need to dial a service and without interfering with normal voice conversations over the same line.
Such lightning-quick access to cyberspace has traditionally been possible only in offices or over cable modems, which are available in few parts of the United States. Giving home users such a fast onramp to the information highway could open the door to new sorts of services, including video over the Internet that approaches television quality.
"Once you get this stuff you will sell your first-born before you go back to a normal modem," said Howard Anderson, managing director of the Yankee Group, a technology consulting firm in Boston. "It's such a better service."
The technology embraced by the consortium, known as digital subscriber line, or DSL, has been under development in the telecommunications industry for years but has been held back by a lack of agreement on technical standards.
(There's more, but that is all I can conveniently copy). |
