[MAJOR NEWS: LUCENT ANNOUNCES NEW 'WILDWIRE' CDSL TECHNOLOGY]
splitterless, 1.5Mbps, supports voice and data over the same line, Lucent making their own chips, line code: unknown, ASIC or DSP: unknown, sampling in Q3 98.
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Lucent Technologies Offers End-To-End Digital Modem Technology For Standard Phone Lines
BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J., Jan. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Lucent Technologies' (NYSE:LU) Microelectronics Group today announced a new Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) chip set that can download data at 1.5 megabits per second (Mbps)(A), about 30 times faster than today's analog modems. In addition, Lucent's Switching and Access Group announced plans to offer switching equipment that can interoperate with products based on the new chip set.
Lucent's new DSL technology, called WildWire(TM), will be as convenient to install in PCs as analog modems are today, because it eliminates the need for additional equipment or modified wiring at the customer's home. Users can download information from the Internet and simultaneously hold a telephone conversation over the same wire that now delivers voice service to their home.
Lucent's Switching and Access Group supplies network communications equipment for approximately 70 percent of the central offices in the United States. Lucent's Microelectronics Group is the leading provider of modem chips to PC manufacturers, supplying modem chips for more than 40 percent of the world's modem-equipped PCs (B). Its customers for 56-Kbps modem chips include Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, NEC, Sony, and Toshiba.
DSL converts analog telephone lines into digital lines by adding a line-interface device at the central office side of the link, and a DSL modem at the subscriber's home. Customers must also subscribe to DSL service from their telephone service provider. Bell Labs, Lucent's research and development arm, invented DSL technology and owns several fundamental patents.
Previously, phone companies have had to install additional telephone wiring or voice/data splitters at subscribers' homes to separate voice and DSL channels. WildWire eliminates this necessity.
Lucent expects to begin shipping sample chip sets incorporating this technology in the third quarter of 1998.
"The combination of Lucent's PC modem chips and its network switching equipment means WildWire is likely to be deployed in PCs and central offices throughout the world," said Bob Rango, general manager of modem integrated circuits for Lucent's Microelectronics Group.
WildWire could dramatically accelerate the growth of the Internet by changing the way people use it. A WildWire connection will allow a user to leave the computer logged in to an Internet service provider all day, and do quick checks of weather, stock, or traffic as needed, and still make and receive voice calls. This eliminates the effort and time required to turn on the computer and get online for each information request.
"And megabit speeds will enrich the entertainment value of the Internet, without the hassle and cost of installing a dedicated digital line," added Rango.
Lucent's Switching and Access Group will offer DSL "application packs" that plug into its switches and digital loop carrier equipment to allow them to communicate with WildWire-equipped PCs and modems. The 5ESS(R)-2000 Switch's new AnyMedia(TM) Express System and Lucent's new AnyMedia Access Platform are designed to host a variety of narrowband and broadband data access services from the switch and digital loop carrier.
"We're continually enhancing the capabilities of our installed base of switching and access equipment in order to meet changing service demand and market needs," said Linda Manchester, director of strategy and business planning for Lucent's Access Group. "The deployment of this DSL equipment is the latest of these enhancements.
"Making WildWire compatible with our switching equipment will help service providers quickly bring this emerging technology to consumers, meeting demand for high-speed data access," said Hilton Nicholson, marketing director for Lucent's Switching group.
For more information on Lucent's digital modem technology, customers may call the Microelectronics Group Customer Response Center, 1-800-372-2447, Dept. R67 (in Canada, 1-800-553-2448, Dept. R67); fax number 1-610-712-4106 (especially for callers outside of North America); or write to Lucent Technologies, Room 30L-15P-BA, 555 Union Boulevard, Allentown, Pa., 18103.
Today's announcement adds to Lucent's existing ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line) portfolio, including the ATM-based ADSL channel units for the SLC-2000(R) and SLC Series 5 digital loop carrier solutions, and the Paradyne HotWire 5100.
Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., designs, builds and delivers a wide range of public and private networks, communications systems and software, data networking systems, business telephone systems and microelectronic components. For more information on Lucent Technologies, visit our web site at lucent.com .
(A) While WildWire chips are capable of transferring data at 1.5 Mbps, users' individual line conditions can affect the transfer rate.
(B) Source: VisionQuest 2000
SOURCE Lucent Technologies
-0- 01/18/98
/CONTACT: Charlie Hartley of Lucent Technologies Microelectronics Group, 908-508-8226, or home: 908-253-0241, or cjhartley@lucent.com; or Laurie Dobosz of Lucent Technologies Switching and Access Group, or 630-224-4196, or home: 847-698-0848, or ldobosz@lucent.com/
/Web site: lucent.com |
