[Lucent Technologies Joins Group Developing High-Speed, Digital Modem Technology For The Internet]
BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J. Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Lucent Technologies (NYSE:LU) today announced it has joined the "Universal" Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line Working Group (UAWG), an organization of leading telecommunications and computer companies working to accelerate widespread use of Digital Subscriber Line (DSI) modem technology. The creation of the UAWG was also announced today.
The UAWG plans to propose an industry standard this year for a simplified version of Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) technology that will deliver to consumers high-speed modem communications over standard phone lines.
Lucent -- which introduced its end-to-end WildWire(TM) DSL technology last week -- will contribute to the development of this standard by offering the engineering expertise of its research and development arm, Bell Labs, which pioneered DSL technology and holds several of the earliest and most fundamental patents related to it. After the UAWG agrees upon an interoperable standard for this new ADSL technology, Lucent plans to incorporate that protocol into its multi-faceted WildWire initiative, including its Switching and Access products.
"Using DSL technology to surf the web is like putting the Internet on steroids," said Bob Rango, general manager of modem integrated circuits for Lucent's Microelectronics Group. "Joining this group is one of the ways we plan to make WildWire the most complete, most interoperable and most ubiquitous DSL technology on the market."
WildWire technology enables the downloading of data at up to 1.5 megabits-per-second* -- about 30 times faster than today's analog modems -- and will be as convenient to install in PCs as analog modems are today because it eliminates the need for voice/data splitters or other additional equipment at the customer's home. The technology also will allow users to download information from the Internet and simultaneously hold a telephone conversation over a single line.
Lucent will manufacture a chip set incorporating WildWire technology, and also will offer network equipment that can interoperate with products based on the new chip set. The network equipment is called the AnyMedia(TM) Access System, which includes an application pack that service providers deploy in a 5ESS(R)- 2000 Switch or a Digital Loop Carrier, allowing them to offer a variety of voice and data access services.
Lucent has a broad base of equipment deployed throughout the telephone and computer industry. The company 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 chips for more than 40 percent of the world's modem-equipped PCs.** Its customers for 56-Kbps modem chips include Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, NEC, Sony, and Toshiba.
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is already working on a standard for this technology, referred to as G.Lite. The Lucent WildWire chips will be upgradable to the G.Lite standard, as well as backwards-compatible with previous generation technologies, such as K56flex(TM).
"The message from telecom service providers is loud and clear: they want the ability to quickly offer data services at very high rates," said Linda Manchester, director of strategy and business planning for Lucent's Access Group. "Supporting the UAWG's efforts squarely addresses the needs of our customers to offer residential and small-business surfers faster and easier
Internet access."
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 3OL-1 5P-BA, 555 Union Boulevard, Allentown, Pa., 18103.
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.
*While WildWire chips are capable of transferring data at 1.5 Mbps, users' individual line conditions can affect the transfer rate.
** Source: VisionQuest 2000
SOURCE Lucent Technologies
-0- 01/26/98
/CONTACT: Michael Jacobs, Microelectronics Group, 908-508-8225, or Laurie Dobosz, Switching and Access Group, 630-224-4196, home, 847-698-0848, or ldobosz@lucent.com, both of Lucent Technologies/
/Web site: lucent.com |
