Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : COMS & the Ghost of USRX w/ other STUFF -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: David Lawrence who wrote (10567)	12/12/1997 12:20:00 AM
From: Dee Jay	Respond to of 22053

couldn't agree more, David. BTW, the following is of interest: (from InternetWeek Newsletter): "Aptis Raises The Access Ante Aptis Communications Inc. has just raised the ante for industrial-strength access. This week, the company announced its CVX 1800 access switch, which is designed for large- scale service providers and enterprises. "The current set of products from our competitors are really designed for the consumer market, and not for really large- scale applications," said Paul Gustafson, Aptis' CEO. "Carriers and the big providers are looking for much higher density and scalability than is currently available." (DEEJAY comment: who did his market research, I wonder?) The CVX 1800 is designed to meet those demands. Employing soon-to-be-released DSP technology from Rockwell Semiconductor Systems that integrates three modems on a chip, the CVX 1800 will deliver extremely high line density--1,344 modems or ISDN lines, or 448 T-1 lines per unit. "Our goal with the CVX 1800 was to provide true carrier-class access," Gustafson said. "Instead of racks of modems, what we do is take the whole [point of presence] in one box." He said that smaller, regional ISPs and corporations will probably continue to build the old way, but the big players are excited by the POP-in-a-box. "Today, no one supports taking a T-3 into one box--we support three," said Gustafson. Aptis has also designed support for a wide variety of telecommunications services, from basic dial-up and leased lines to xDSL. The combination of higher capacity and support for different services offers some advantages. "Large ISPs can provide greater--and scalable--access in less space, and with power demands and heat output," said David Boast, vice president of dial access at Uunet. "The multiple services support will let providers add new services without trashing their existing access hardware." "That's a major concern when you're providing a lot of access," he said. "We have to have the tools to stay ahead of customer demand." Uunet and GTE Internetworking are participating in a beta trial of the CVX 1800. That trial is expected to conclude in the first quarter of 1998. "This is definitely the kind of technology that we're looking forward to," Boast said. "The more we can fit into smaller spaces, the better. If Aptis can deliver, this product puts them way ahead of the pack." Whether the company can deliver is, in fact, the big question. "Aptis has no track record in this space, and that's going to be their uphill battle," said Aberdeen Group analyst Virginia Brooks. "If Nortel, Lucent or Newbridge went to a provider with this kind of box, you can be sure that they'd sit up and notice." By Matthew Friedman