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To: P.M.Freedman who wrote (926)	1/15/1998 9:40:00 PM
From: Maverick	Respond to of 1629

Diamond Aims Shotgun At Bandwidth Limitations using Ascend MP+ technology New Modem Reaches 112Kbps By Coupling Two Phone Lines by Betty Yuan Originally published in the February 1998 issue The last advance in analog modem speed involved squeezing 56Kbps throughput from a conventional phone line. Diamond Multimedia Systems hasn't beaten that limit, but has doubled the ante: The company's new Shotgun technology lets two 56Kbps modems work as one to achieve a maximum theoretical throughput of 112Kbps using two phone lines. Diamond sees Shotgun as a more affordable alternative to ISDN service. According to market research firm International Data Corp., 25 million U.S. households already have multiple phone lines. By bonding two analog lines, consumers can approach ISDN's 128Kbps speeds. Diamond also touts Shotgun's ability to deliver "bandwidth on demand"--to activate the second line when a user needs a faster connection, then release it for voice or fax use when Internet traffic is low. Jeff Orr, product line manager of Diamond's communications division, says the company is planning to implement the technology in two ways: "[Shotgun] is being included in two product lines. First, across all our SupraExpress 56K products." He says customers who already own SupraExpress 56K modems will be able to update their units to Shotgun technology during the first quarter of 1998 via a free download from Diamond's Web site. Afterward, given two phone lines, an owner can combine his or her modem with another--with a 33.6Kbps unit, for instance, for a total throughput of 89.6Kbps. The second Shotgun offering will be a new dual-line modem, the SupraSonic II, which Diamond also plans to ship in the first quarter for an estimated price of $199.95. Shotgun technology requires Ascend Communications' Multichannel Plus Protocol (MP+) on the server end; according to the market research firm DataQuest, Ascend services 75 to 85 percent of large Internet service providers (ISPs). One such ISP is Earthlink. Its director of product management, Barry Friedman, estimates that ISP-side support for Shotgun technology should be in place "by the time the retail product hits the market." "I truly believe that ISDN is the best," Friedman adds, "but [Shotgun technology] will be accepted by the masses in far greater numbers." Diamond isn't the only company coupling analog lines. Boca Research has announced a similar 112Kbps technology, dubbed Dynamic Duo, which at press time it intended to ship by the end of 1997.

To: P.M.Freedman who wrote (926)	1/15/1998 9:50:00 PM
From: Maverick	Respond to of 1629

Williams Resumes Fiber Role With $1B Agreements By Peter Lambert January 14, 1998 1:19 PM PST Inter@ctive Week Williams Communications Group intends to take on major Internet and long-distance telephone backbone network providers with an expanded 18,000-mile fiber network and $1 billion in long-term network lease commitments from wholesale customers. Heading the list of Williams' customer deals: a 20-year, $260 million transmission capacity lease to carrier Intermedia Communications Inc., and a five-year, multimillion-dollar capacity lease to U S West Communications Group (www.uswest.com/media). Also, Williams announced a $150 million infrastructure upgrade contract with Ascend Communications Inc. (www.ascend.com). At the same time, Williams competitor Qwest Communications International Inc. (www.qwest.net) reached a $260 million cash and stock-swap deal to lease capacity to Internet service provider (ISP) Apex Global Internet Services Inc. (www.agis.net). The occasion for Williams' coming-out-again party: the end of a three-year noncompete agreement with WorldCom Inc. n January 1995, Williams (www.wilcom.com) sold all but one strand of its 11,000-mile national fiber-optic network -- built by pulling fiber through thousands of Williams-owned, natural gas pipelines -- to WorldCom (www.wcom.com) for $2.5 billion. The agreement prevented Williams from competing with WorldCom in a range of frame relay, cell relay and private business line services until last week. Now, according to Howard Janzen, president and chief executive officer of Williams, "We are back, big time" with a business model based on reselling capacity, rather than service, which would give customers direct control of the backbone facilities. The overarching goal, he said, is "to build the nation's premier backbone for wholesale services."

To: P.M.Freedman who wrote (926)	1/15/1998 9:50:00 PM
From: Maverick	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1629

With that "highly flexible arrangement for the purchase of backbone capacity, Intermedia expects to have both the critical mass of multimedia traffic and the infrastructure to support it," according to Robert Rouse, Intermedia executive vice president of information systems for Intermedia, which also owns business ISP Digex Inc. Intermedia (www.intermedia.com) plans to extend its voice, data and video services reach from 22 to 35 markets by mid-1998 and its capacity to 2.5 gigabits per second and beyond over the 20-year contract. U S West will use the backbone lease to extend its !nterprise Data Networking Services and planned long-distance consumer services beyond its 14-state region. Additionally, ISP Concentric Network Corp. (www.concentric.net), of which Williams owns 12 percent, will expand its operational partnership with Williams.