MSFT/NT 1-Meg Modem Pact.
From
zdnet.com
Northern Telecom Inc.'s efforts to get a high-speed data access service into the telephone company market quickly got its biggest boost to date today when Microsoft Corp. announced it is endorsing Nortel's 1-Meg Modem.
In addition to the support from the biggest manufacturer of computer operating systems, Nortel announced sales of 1 million lines of 1-Meg Modem technology, naming three major service providers that are using the system to offer data service: Agis Communications, Megsinet Inc. and Transwire Communications Inc. The orders are worth $1 billion in sales for Nortel.
The 1-Meg Modem technology, announced by Nortel in October 1997, was designed to offer customers access at speeds up to 1 megabit per second over existing phone lines. The technology was not based on the industry's developing Asymmetric Digital Subscsriber Line (ADSL) technology, but was an effort by Nortel to address problems that were limiting ADSL deployment, including distance, noise interference and the need for telephone companies to install special equipment at their central offices (COs). The 1-Meg Modem can be supported directly from an existing CO voice switch.
Microsoft's endorsement means the company is working with Nortel to gain carrier support of 1-Meg Modems in advance of the industry's resolution of standards questions surrounding both ADSL and the newer ADSL Lite.
Nortel plans to help Microsoft make Windows NT a carrier-class product and will use NT servers for its Internet Protocol telephony communications.
According to industry sources, Microsoft agreed to back Nortel in its early efforts to get a system on the market that will support services. Nortel agreed to migrate to standards-based ADSL Lite when that is available. ADSL Lite is being developed by the Universal ADSL Working Group, an organization formed by Compaq Computer Corp., Intel Corp., Microsoft, the seven largest U.S local phone companies and many of their equipment vendors, to speed faster data access services for consumers.
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