UN telecommunications body adopts new modem standard
07:44 a.m. Feb 06, 1998 Eastern
PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb 5 (Reuters) - A United Nations telecommunication
standard-setting body on Friday will formally adopt a new standard for a new
generation of speedy computer modems, ending an industry feud that has held up
sales for a year.
The International Telecommunications Union will conclude a meeting in Geneva on
Friday, where telecommunication industry officials hashed out an agreement to
merge two competing standards for so-called 56-kbps modems.
Leading modem companies, including 3Com Corp., Rockwell International Corp.
and Lucent Technologies Inc., said they will introduce modems based on the new
standard this quarter. Customers of older 56-kbps will be able to get software to
make their devices compatible with the new ones.
Modems are devices that allow computers to send and receive information over
telephone lines. The 56-kbps modems, introduced in late 1996, can receive up to 14
pages of single-spaced text per second.
Sales have been badly disappointing, however, because modem makers could not
agree to a single standard.
One camp, led by US Robotics Corp., now part of 3Com, backed a standard called
x2, while another, led by Rockwell and Lucent, backed a standard called K56flex.
Modems based on the differing standards could not exchange with each other.
Because neither standard had a decisive edge over the other, companies and
consumers put off buying 56-kbps.
The ITU agreement will boost modem sales significantly, industry executives said.
''Modems are something people don't understand, so they tend to turn to experts,''
including consumer magazines, said Neil Clemmons, vice president of marketing at
3Com's personal communications division. ''This opens up the OK from the press
to buy the modems.''
Partly based on this agreement, the number of modems shipped each year likely will
rise to 75 million by the year 2000 from 50 million in 1997, according to VisionQuest
2000, a market researcher.
Industry executives had said three months ago that they expected to reach an
agreement by the end of the ITU conference. The standards body, part of the UN,
approved a document that specifies the modems' technical functions.
The standard, previously called V.pcm, will get an official designation as early as
Friday.
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