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

To: David Lawrence who wrote (12508)	2/6/1998 9:18:00 AM
From: Moonray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 22053

UN telecommunications body adopts new modem standard 07:44 a.m. Feb 06, 1998 Eastern PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb 5 (Reuters) - A United Nations telecommunication standard-setting body on Friday will formally adopt a new standard for a new generation of speedy computer modems, ending an industry feud that has held up sales for a year. The International Telecommunications Union will conclude a meeting in Geneva on Friday, where telecommunication industry officials hashed out an agreement to merge two competing standards for so-called 56-kbps modems. Leading modem companies, including 3Com Corp., Rockwell International Corp. and Lucent Technologies Inc., said they will introduce modems based on the new standard this quarter. Customers of older 56-kbps will be able to get software to make their devices compatible with the new ones. Modems are devices that allow computers to send and receive information over telephone lines. The 56-kbps modems, introduced in late 1996, can receive up to 14 pages of single-spaced text per second. Sales have been badly disappointing, however, because modem makers could not agree to a single standard. One camp, led by US Robotics Corp., now part of 3Com, backed a standard called x2, while another, led by Rockwell and Lucent, backed a standard called K56flex. Modems based on the differing standards could not exchange with each other. Because neither standard had a decisive edge over the other, companies and consumers put off buying 56-kbps. The ITU agreement will boost modem sales significantly, industry executives said. ''Modems are something people don't understand, so they tend to turn to experts,'' including consumer magazines, said Neil Clemmons, vice president of marketing at 3Com's personal communications division. ''This opens up the OK from the press to buy the modems.'' Partly based on this agreement, the number of modems shipped each year likely will rise to 75 million by the year 2000 from 50 million in 1997, according to VisionQuest 2000, a market researcher. Industry executives had said three months ago that they expected to reach an agreement by the end of the ITU conference. The standards body, part of the UN, approved a document that specifies the modems' technical functions. The standard, previously called V.pcm, will get an official designation as early as Friday. o~~~ O