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A PC WEEK article, "Ascend's 56K modem plans for RASes hit some snags," discusses deployment and technical problems with Ascend's 56K modem cards.
Sony has selected Lucent's Apollo chipset for use in Sony PCs. Lucent has a press release. The Apollo is a host-based modem chipset, i.e., a Winmodem.
Daniel Knight of the No Hype 56K Site forwarded an interesting piece. The Internet IT Informer has an article, "Access speeds over 56Kbps unlikely to improve Web experience."
The article quotes Boardwatch editor Jack Rickard: "Increasing bandwidth to the home or office beyond ISDN speeds will probably not improve the Web experience until backbone connectivity improves dramatically." An MIT study reached a similar conclusion, namely that most cable modems would typically deliver ISDN (128K) performance when transferring data across the Internet.
The Informer's conclusion is drawn from a measure of Internet backbone speed done by Keynote and Boardwatch magazine. Keynote's unique purpose is to "measure and manage web-site responsiveness."
Greetings, People of Europe
x2 upgrades for U.S. Robotics Courier V.34+ and Sportster Flash 33.6 modems purchased in Finland, Sweden, and Norway are available at http://www.usr.se/.
The United Kingdom's Grey Cell has announced the series 9000 PCMCIA cards, which will combine 33.6 or 56K fax modems with 10Base-2 or 10-Base-T Ethernet cards and GSM (global system for mobile communications). Availability is expected in August. There's nothing about the series 9000 cards on Grey Cell's web site, but NewsBytes has a story, which requires membership in NewsBytes. A 30-day trial membership is available.
Rumors are that a 56K modem is in the works at France's Com1.
PC WEEK proclaims "Labels on 56K-bps modem packages should actually read '40-something'." 56K.COM agrees 100%.
Computer Life's Download Derby compares the maximum speed of various high-speed technologies.
56K Modem Reviews
Windows Sources has a review of the Cardinal Connecta, the first modem they've tested that connected faster than 50K.
Computer Shopper and Family PC have reviews of the U.S. Robotics Sportster.
PC WEEK calls the Megahertz 56K PCMCIA card "worth the wait."
Free upgrades to 56K
These are the companies we know of who have web page announcements officially committing to free upgrades to the final ITU 56K standard:
Buyer's Guide Update
I had planned to debut the 56K modem buyer's guide today, but it wasn't to be. I'd like to say that it was because I had to spend the weekend putting out a fire at my day job. The truth is that the project is simply taking more time than I expected. There's a lot of facts to track down. Look for the guide in a few weeks. Meanwhile, here's an improved preview.
Upgrade Deadlines
56K upgrade offers from several manufacturers expire at the end of the month. Don't miss the boat! For other companies, see the 56K Upgrade Guide.
Ascend June 30, 1997
Hayes June 30, 1997
Livingston June 30, 1997
Logicode June 30, 1997
Practical Peripherals June 30, 1997
Today's News
A USA Today article, "Motorola plan could spark space wars," talks about Motorola's 12.9 billion dollar Celestri project. Celestri would use 63 Earth-orbiting satellites and several fixed satellites to provide Internet access at extremely high speeds over satellite dishes. You can read more about satellite technology in "56K's high-speed competition: satellite dishes."
Like similar plans from Teledesic and the currently available DirecPC from Hughes Network Systems, data would be downloaded from the satellite dish, but a conventional technology - such as 56K modems or ISDN - would be used for uploading. It seems to me that a satellite dish could be an ideal way for a small organization to receive a Usenet news feed, which is mostly downloading, anyway.
A LAN Times article, "Give your telecommuters ISDN when it's available or a modem when it's not," discusses remote access servers for offices and ISPs. LAN Times has reviews of the Ascend MAX 4004, Gandalf XpressWay RLAN, Shiva LANRover, and U.S. Robotics Total Control Enterprise Hub, all of which are either 56K or upgradeable to 56K.
Another LAN Times piece, "ISPs break ISDN promise: Providers fail to offer guaranteed double-channel 128Kbps," covers the problems some ISPs are facing when bonding two 64K ISDN channels to create 128K. Some of the problems are software-related, others occur when the two channels are connected to two different servers.
