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

To: djane who wrote (50374)	7/25/1998 11:11:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 61433

NTT Seizes Big Share Of Market For Dedicated Internet Lines July 24, 1998 Nikkei English News via NewsEdge Corporation : TOKYO (Nikkei)--Since it launched Internet service via dedicated lines just over one year ago, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (9432) has captured about 60% of the market, according to a survey by the Multimedia Research Institute. As of May, 24,650 such circuits were in use in Japan. NTT emerged as the leader, with 15,000 circuits, making for a 61% market share. The affordability of the firm's service -- 38,000 yen a month for the 128kpbs service -- and its strong marketing has helped win over users. NTT was followed by Internet Initiative Japan Inc., Tokyo Internet Corp. and Japan Telecom Co. (9434). Telecommunications companies are beginning to dominate the market, shaking other service providers from their positions, the research firm says. (The Nikkei Industrial Daily Friday edition) <<Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc. -- 07-24-98>> [Copyright 1998, Nikkei America]

To: djane who wrote (50374)	7/25/1998 11:14:00 PM
From: djane	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 61433

AOL Upgrade Should Be Good News for Modem Makers By JOHN SHINAL c.1998 Bloomberg News America Online Inc. said it has finished installing new software in its network that lets Internet users communicate with each other at higher speeds, a step likely to spur sales for 3Com Corp. and other modem makers. The No. 1 online service said its network is now compatible with a technology standard known as V.90, which ensures that telephone modems made by different vendors can talk to each other at speeds approaching 56 kilobits per second. The 56K modems are about 60 percent faster than modems using older technologies. The decision by AOL is likely to boost sales to consumers, who have delayed buying 56K modems because the lack of a standard meant competing products couldn't communicate at the highest speeds. Other online services and Internet providers are likely to follow AOL's lead in offering standards-based connections, spurring even more modem purchases. ''This should have a cascading effect on modem sales,'' said Duane Smith, an analyst with the market research firm VisionQuest Inc. in Moorpark, California. 3Com, the No. 1 modem maker, and Rockwell International Corp., which make competing technologies used in 56K modems, both cited slowing sales of modems and related hardware when they reported lower profit earlier this year. Annual sales growth of modem chipsets, the brains behind all telephone-based modems, slowed to 16 percent last year from 44 percent in 1996, according to VisionQuest. Rockwell is the No. 1 maker of chipsets, while 3Com is No. 2. After more than a year of legal wrangling, the International Telecommunications Union in February set the V.90 standard, which contains parts of 3Com's x2 technology and the K56Flex scheme developed by Rockwell and Lucent Technologies Inc. K56Flex modems that are not equipped with the standard can communicate with x2-equipment at speeds no higher than 34.4 Kbps. AOL spokeswoman Wendy Goldberg said that even though 80 percent of its network can support connection speeds up to 56 Kbps, most of the service's 12 million members use 28.8 Kbps or 34.4 Kbps modems. AOL also owns CompuServe, which has another 2 million members, though Thursday's announcement concerns AOL only. Prices for 56K modems, which have fallen more than 25 percent in the past year, are likely to stabilize or spike up as 3Com, No. 2 modem maker Diamond Multimedia Inc. and No. 3 Hayes Corp. charge a premium for V.90 products. By the end of the year, though, prices probably will begin to fall as smaller companies enter the V.90 market, he said. ----- (The Bloomberg web site is at bloomberg.com )