First MCI, now: Sprint will offer faster Web access Service
to deliver data nearly twice as fast as 28.8-kilobit modems.
The Kansas City Star
Wed, Jan 21 1998
Sprint Internet Passport will offer higher speed on-line access,
sometimes referred to as 56K, to the company's Internet
customers in March.
Sprint this week is expected to announce an agreement with 3Com
Corp. to offer 56 kilobits-per-second Internet access within 60
days. The service initially will be offered in 30 cities around
the country.
The higher speed access allows customers with modems equipped to
deliver data at 56,000 bits per second - twice the speed of the
28.8-kilobit modems in common use today - to get information
from the Internet more quickly. With more graphics-heavy pages
containing sound and even video on the World Wide Web, the speed
at which computers connect to the Internet is becoming more
important.
Westwood-based Sprint hasn't determined which 30 cities will get
56K access initially, said Terry Parker, director of product
management and development for Sprint Internet Services.
Sprint will use 3Com's 56-kilobit, x2 technology.
Some local Internet providers already offer 56-kilobit service,
and most major Internet services are testing it. America Online
has been offering 56-kilobit service in the Kansas City area
since last year.
Parker said Sprint has been testing 56-kilobit service for more
than a year, but delayed offering higher speed access because
the industry hadn't set a standard for the service.
Two companies - 3Com and Rockwell Semiconductor Systems - offer
computer chips to drive 56K service. The chips are not
compatible, and modems using one chip cannot communicate at
higher speeds with modems using the other chip.
That lack of compatibility means that if someone uses a modem
based on the Rockwell chip, and the Internet provider uses
modems based on the 3Com chip, that user won't be able to
connect at the higher speed.
However, the industry-regulating International
Telecommunications Union (ITU) is expected to adopt a new
standard for 56-kilobit service sometime this spring. Sprint
said its service will be upgraded to meet that standard, and
3Com is planning to offer a software upgrade for the 56K
modems it has sold.
But even with a standard, 56-kilobit service is still not for
everyone.
Whether an Internet user actually can connect at the faster
speed depends on the quality of the telephone line from the
computer to the local telephone company.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that three major technology
companies - Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Compaq Computer -
and all but one of the regional Bell companies have agreed to a
standard to provide even higher speed access by Christmas.
The service, called asymmetrical digital subscriber line, or
ADSL, will allow users to connect at speeds up to 30 times
faster than conventional Internet access. ADSL does not require
a special telephone line.
Parker said Sprint has been testing ADSL, and will offer the
service when a standard has been established.
(Copyright 1998)
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