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56K standard may be delayed; patent issues arise
Communications Standards Review is reporting a stalemate in patent issues that affect development of the international 56K standard. At the July meeting in Dublin, and again at the recent TR-30.1 ad hoc modem meeting in Quebec, talks stalled over key patent issues relating to V.pcm, the ITU designation of the international 56K standard.
A May 17th report from the ITU, the international telecommunications standards body, had indicated a recommendation, or draft, in September, followed by a final decision in January, 1998. Ken Kerchmer, the author of the CSR report, feels that this goal is unlikely to be reached:
As far as the status of the PCM modem standard is concerned, it is very likely that we will not be able to Determine (ITU speak) in September and then Decide (more ITU speak) in January, 1998. The ITU approval process consists of two steps, first Determine then the second and final Decide. So two other alternatives exist: an Interim Standard from TIA, possibly in December, 1997 or Determine the ITU Recommendation in January, 1998.
Les Brown, the Rapporteur (chairman) of the ITU committee working on 56K standards, agrees:
It is still possible to complete a draft for 'determination' in September but I am not very optimistic. If we fail to 'determine' V.pcm in September, we will likely discuss what action to take at the next TR-30.1 meeting in October. TR-30.1 may decide to put more emphasis on the completion of a TIA Interim Standard since V.pcm could not be 'determined' before January 1998 and 'decided' before September 1998.
56K vs 53K followup
Several readers noticed that the Supra K56flex manuals claimed that, due to FCC regulations, the maximum speed was 52K. Several Supra representatives stated that this was a by-product of the confusion over whether or not K56flex was limited to sub-56K speeds due to FCC regulations on line power (it isn't). The statement is being removed from newer Supra manuals.
Other News
U.S. Robotics has new firmware dated 8/18/97 for 25MHz Courier x2 modems (use ATI7 to see if your Courier has the 25MHz chip). For other Courier files and upgrades, see ftp://ftp.usr.com/pub/usr/dl05/. File descriptions are at ftp://ftp.usr.com/pub/usr/dl05/index.
Rob Eberhardt noticed that the USR line test page has moved to http://x2.usr.com/connectnow/linetest.html.
Ariel's RASCAL provides up to twenty-four K56flex dial-in ports for Windows NT servers.
Logicode has extended its upgrade offer to September 30, 1997.
Lucent is the first modem manufacturer to meet Microsoft's PC 97 requirements, according to a Lucent press release.
Zoom has released K56flex PCMCIA cards for Macintosh and Windows laptops.
Global Village has a PC Card 3.0 Update that upgrades their K56flex PCMCIA cards to firmware version 1.0 and provides compatibility with the PowerBook 2400 and 3400.
Computer Shopper has a review of the Diamond Multimedia SupraExpress 56e. For others, see the reviews page.
TechShopper looks at the DirecPC Internet satellite dish.
New @ 56K.COM
The 56K Speed Survey now has a permanent home under the Special Reports banner. Take the survey and send in the results for your 56K modem.
I've added a search engine to simplify digging through the 150+ pages on the site. In keeping with the goal of convenient navigation, practically every page on the site now has a search link. I've wanted a search function since day one, because it's one of the features I appreciate most at other web sites. Matt's Simple Search was the first site search engine that was easy enough for me to configure by myself. If you're looking for CGI programs for your web page, visit CGI_Resources, another of Matt's projects.
Prodigy is selling its telecommunications network to SplitRock Services, Inc. The new company will upgrade the network to provide 56K access, according to a story in Computer News Daily.
Dustin Hall reports that the September issue of Computer Life has reviews of the Motorola ModemSURFR 56K, US Robotics Sportster 56K, Cardinal Connecta 56K, Diamond SupraExpress 56E, Global Village TelePort 56, Hayes Accura 56K, Logicode Quicktel 56W95-P,and Zoom Faxmodem 56KX. At press time, the issue wasn't online.
Viking has released a K56flex 56K PC Card.
Computer Shopper has a review of the Logicode Quicktel x2.
Motorola and Best Buy are offering trade-in rebates from August 17 to August 23, 1997. 1,000 trade-in modems will be donated to schools.
ISDN
Macworld's cover story this month is a guide to using ISDN.
The Ascend Pipeline 85 integrates an ISDN bridge/router and Ethernet hub.
56K.COM is written and maintained by Les Jones. Artwork by Mark Maxwell. Copyright 1997 Softwords.
