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Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications-News Only!!! (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Finder who wrote (958)	1/20/1998 11:26:00 AM
From: Dee Jay	Respond to of 1629

another player - happens to be a favorite of mine for its LAN products (fast introduction of new technologies at great price points): MRVC MRV Announces Agreement to Acquire Xyplex pull up a quote on MRVC to get the story. Dee Jay

To: Finder who wrote (958)	1/20/1998 2:51:00 PM
From: Maverick	Respond to of 1629

Titans unite on Net access Accord: Intel, Microsoft, Compaq join five phone firms on high-speed links. New York Times Three titans of the personal computer industry have joined with five of the nation's largest local telephone companies to push a unified approach to high-speed Internet access over ordinary phone lines -- in a bid likely to accelerate a promising but long-delayed technology. Compaq Computer Corp., Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. intend to unveil the venture next week at a communications conference in Washington, executives involved with the alliance said. The computer and phone companies are developing standards for so-called digital subscriber line (DSL) service, focusing on a version that would deliver the Internet 30 times as quickly as conventional modems. With such speed, Web pages that now take minutes to view would appear on a computer's screen almost instantly. Several DSL services already are available in much of the Bay Area and other communities around the country, although the monthly rates are well above what the average Internet surfer would want to spend. The version that Compaq, Intel and Microsoft are promoting could be less expensive, though, because it would be built into new computers and require no extra work to install. Top telecommunications equipment manufacturers, including Lucent Technologies, Northern Telecom and Rockwell, have already announced a similar money-saving approach to DSL. They are working on standards, too, but their efforts could be eclipsed by the market power of the Microsoft-Intel-Compaq alliance. For the computer industry alliance, faster Internet access is a powerful way to pump up consumer interest in bigger and better computers, at a time when a boom in sub-$1,000 PCs threatens to cut into profit margins. Today's high-end computers are built to present top-quality sound and video, but the low capacity of today's phone network degrades the splashy multimedia material available on the Internet. Holiday goal Microsoft, Intel and Compaq hope to have modems and software based on the new standards on store shelves by Christmas, the executives said. DSL multiplies the capacity of copper phone wires by using frequencies higher than those used to carry conversations.

To: Finder who wrote (958)	1/20/1998 2:53:00 PM
From: Maverick	Respond to of 1629

Titans, Part II The formation of the new group is one of the most significant early moves in what promises to be a years-long battle between telephone companies and cable television companies for control of how consumers get high-speed access to the Internet. The group includes the two major local-phone companies in California -- SBC Communications, the parent company of Pacific Bell, and GTE Corp. -- and three of the other four regional Bells. The products envisioned by the consortium would essentially be new modems, either installed inside a computer or sitting alongside one. Most important, perhaps, they would plug into normal telephone lines but would remain connected to the outside world at all times without the need to dial a service and without interfering with normal voice conversations over the same line. Such lightning-quick access to cyberspace has traditionally been possible only in offices or over cable modems, which are available in few parts of the United States. Giving home users such a fast on-ramp to the information highway could open the door to new sorts of services, including video over the Internet that approaches television quality. ''Once you get this stuff you will sell your first-born before you go back to a normal modem,'' said Howard Anderson, managing director of the Yankee Group, a technology consulting firm in Boston. ''It's such a better service.'' DSL has been under development in the telecommunications industry for years but has been held back by a lack of agreement on technical standards. 'Baby Bells' sign on Bell Atlantic Corp., which serves local telephone customers from Virginia to Maine, is the one regional Bell that has shied away from the new Compaq-Intel-Microsoft consortium. People close to the talks between the company and the consortium said that Bell Atlantic was leaning toward a different sort of DSL. And while the company has left the door open to join the group, it also has reservations about how the consortium is run. The consortium is strongly influenced by its founding partners, said executives who have dealt with it. Compaq is the world's largest maker of personal computers; Intel is the largest maker of the microprocessors; and Microsoft is the world's largest software company.

To: Finder who wrote (958)	1/20/1998 2:56:00 PM
From: Maverick	Respond to of 1629

Titans, Part III As computer users have become more sophisticated and as the Internet has become loaded with data-heavy graphics, traditional modems, the devices that enable computers to communicate over telephone lines, have not kept pace. The result: long delays while users wait for information to be received from the network. The cable television industry is pinning some of its hopes for growth on cable modems, which allow users to access the Internet using the cable network. But only about 100,000 people have signed up for cable modems so far, according to analysts, and the service is available to only about 10 percent of the nation's homes. People with a need for speed online today can often order high-speed data lines from their local telephone company. But many of those options, such as the lines known as ISDN connections, can be cumbersome and expensive and require installation by a telephone company technician. Microsoft has been particularly expert at playing on both sides of the cable-telephone fence. Last year Microsoft invested $1 billion in Comcast Corp., the No. 4 cable company and a part owner of @Home Corp., a Redwood City company that provides Internet access over cable lines. It also has teamed with Ameritech, the Chicago-based Bell, to offer a DSL service in Ann Arbor at prices far below the industry average. For many years, engineers and programmers believed that the copper wires that carry voice conversations could not compete with dedicated data networks in their ability to carry large amounts of digital information. Goal: 1.5 million bps But recent advances in electrical engineering have challenged that assumption. Some engineers today think that standard copper telephone wires can carry as many as 8 million bits of information a second, though the consortium is initially developing standards for modems that can carry only 1.5 million bits a second. A bit is the smallest amount of information a computer can process, either a zero or a one. Today's fastest standard modems are rated at 56,000 bits a second but are actually imited to receiving 52,000 bits a second -- and in practice almost never reach that speed. There are dozens of companies, large and small, developing DSL products, though

To: Finder who wrote (958)	1/20/1998 2:58:00 PM
From: Maverick	Respond to of 1629

the group has not finished developing its technical protocols. By eschewing the fastest version of DSL, the group is trying to avoid some of the technical problems that have limited the availability of such services. The biggest hurdle for consumers, though, has been DSL's price tag: in the Bay Area, most DSL connections to the Internet start at $160 to $200 per month. Today's fastest modems cost about $150, while access to the Internet typically costs $20 a month. Mercury News Staff Writer Jon Healey contributed to this report. [Sounds great news for ASND's DSL TNT and DSL PipeLine, both of which support AWRE's Wavelet DMT xDSL]

To: Finder who wrote (958)	1/20/1998 3:44:00 PM
From: Maverick	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1629

China's Telecom Industry Grew 30 Pct in 1997 January 20, 1998 (BEIJING) -- China's telecommunications industry continued its rapid growth in 1997, with business expanding 33 percent, according to the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications (MPT). About 19.6 million telephone lines were installed in 1997, pushing China's total to 111 million lines. The ratio is now 8.11 lines per 100 people, and in major cities the ratio has increased to 26 per 100. The number of mobile phone subscribers has increased to 13.23 million, the third largest in the world. And China's cellular phone network is now linked to 22 countries and regions. The ministry expects to soon have 14 long-distance optical-fiber trunk lines totaling 820,000km in length. Its digital telecommunications covers 90 percent of cities and counties, the ministry said. Post and telecommunications departments spent RMB124.5 billion (US$15 billion) on fixed assets in 1997, and 50 percent of the new telephone exchanges and 90 percent of the new exchanges are Chinese-made. (Xinhua News Agency) [Little wonder why ASND has been doing well in China & Taiwan]