3Com 2Way article:
Supporting Rival Standards -- 3Com tries to have it both ways on 56K
By Ken Presti & Sam Masud
Santa Clara, Calif. -- 3Com Corp. will embrace both 56-Kbps modem technologies being rolled out this year rather than choosing between them-despite its planned acquisition of U.S. Robotics Inc.
U.S. Robotics makes the x2 modem technology, which competes against rival Rockwell International Corp.'s K56flex. But 3Com said it has to protect a substantial installed base of remote-access equipment sold through OEMs and joint development agreements with Rockwell, Lucent Technologies Inc. and Motorola Inc.
Those 3Com products are built with lower-speed modem chipsets from Rockwell, Santa Barbara, Calif. As a result, they can be upgraded to 56 Kbps only with Rockwell's K56flex technology, a competing technology that Lucent also supports.
Jim Olson, 3Com's senior vice president of WAN operations, said the best path for 3Com is to support both x2 and K56flex technologies until a standard is set. "Our combined company will clearly be the force that drives the final standard."
"I think we've had a war going on that we can bring some order to. They're technically pretty close anyway, because there aren't a whole lot of ways you can do 56K. Plus customers are absolutely demanding [a resolution of the issue]. The advantage of x2 is that it's there today," said Olson.
Within a few weeks, 3Com is expected to integrate both x2 and K56flex into its network access concentrator, the AccessBuilder 8000. That action would make good on an earlier promise to support K56flex, take care of existing 3Com customers and avoid alienating future colleagues at U.S. Robotics, analysts say.
"They pretty much have to do both technologies," said Bobbi Murphy, analyst at Dataquest Inc., San Jose, Calif. "But long term, I don't think you'll see any more Rockwell-based solutions in 3Com products."
Olson, however, said 3Com has no plans to end its relationships with Lucent and Rockwell. "We have customers dependent on that technology," he said.
But Murphy said he is skeptical whether 3Com's new position of keeping a foot in both camps necessarily will make the upcoming negotiations run more smoothly. "The standards battle is going to be fought among engineers who will come in swinging for whatever technology they want to keep in the spec. But the whole thing will eventually be subverted by some crazy political process that nobody will understand except the engineers who were in the room when the deal was reached."
But if 3Com loses ground on x2, the move would not sit well with the distributors and VARs of U.S. Robotics. Tim Kery, senior manager of the U.S. Robotics line for Westcon Inc., Eastchester, N.Y., believes U.S. Robotics has the better technology and also a substantial lead because it already is shipping the x2 software upgrade.
"The x2 [technology] for modems already is shipping, and [U.S. Robotics] said they will ship x2 for their access concentrator before the end of this month," he said. "All Rockwell has is a lot of press releases and public relations because in reality they are about nine months behind."
In its beta tests of x2 technology, Westcon found the new U.S. Robotics modems consistently achieved speeds of 48 Kbps and 53 Kbps, Kery said.
Copyright r 1997 CMP Media Inc.
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