i reiterate "who supplies their modems?"
I'd like to hear your thoughts on that. Personally, I'm extremely curious to see how the X2 vs. Rockwell/Lucent deal works out. I believe Rockwell/Lucent will be the standard adopted by ITU, and think that'll spell major trouble for USRX if they don't become compatible. And if USRX doesn't become compatible (in this scenario), it'll be very bad news for AOL.
Some folks might be inclined to point at HST as an example of how USRX can establish a proprietary de-facto standard successfully. It was primarily successful among the BBSes, though (yesterday's analogue of the ISP) because they needed the high speed to move FidoNet traffic. That model doesn't work anymore, though, since the ISPs already have a high-speed backbone.
True, X2 Sportsters are much cheaper than HST modems, but neither standard will sell much (IMHO) until the public has assurance it'll work with their ISP. Since many of these ISPs are run by old-time SysOps, I just can't imagine them flocking to a proprietary "standard". They may be using Sportsters and Couriers now (cheap and compatible, yet very solid in the case of the Couriers), but I think the Courier folks will move to ZyXEL, Microcom, and Racal (I *think* they're all on the Rockwell list) and the Sportster folks will move to Zooms.
Of course, it bears mentioning that most users don't know the difference between v.42 and v.42bis, and may jump right on the first 56k modems to hit the market, believing they'll immediately start moving twice as fast on the net. After all, I still haven't seen anyone telling them otherwise. |
