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Carmen Nobel of PC Week reports that Motorola is looking for a buyer for its modem division, including its analog and ISDN products. Earlier this week, Motorola announced substantial price reductions on its ModemSURFR and VoiceSURFR modem lines.
According to a Global Village salesperson I spoke to today, Global Village is guaranteeing free upgrades to the final ITU 56K standard. From a Global Village FAQ:
Q: Are these products upgradable to the ITU standard for 56K?
A: All Global Village 56K modems, including the 56K Modem/Ethernet PC Cards, have shipped with a large Flash ROM and a Flash DSP. This makes them software upgradable. After the ITU ratifies a 56K standard, Global Village will provide a free software upgrade to the standard for its 56K modems. This upgrade will be posted on the Global Village web site and will allow users to quickly and easily upgrade their modem. See the 56K Upgrade page for specific details on this offer.
Hewlett Packard has dropped prices by 30% on its Fast Internet Pack, which includes a U.S. Robotics x2 modem.
Firmware updates
Shane Leland notes that Askey Communications has K56flex V.112 firmware upgrades and Windows 95 drivers.
Jeff Peters found firmware upgrades at Best Data's web site.
56K remote access servers
The Phylon Chameleon is a 60-port PCI card that draws only 300 mW per port. It currently supports V.34, V.34+, and ISDN, and is upgradeable to the future ITU 56K standard.
Ariel has announced a value-added reseller program for its RASCAL line of remote access products for Windows NT servers. The RASCAL provides up to 48 ports for dial-in or dial-out, and supports V.34+, ISDN, and K56flex.
The Hayes Century MR2000 supports up to 64 analog modems or up to 112 digital K56flex modems.
Todd Spangler of Web Week follows the latest developments in the development of an international ITU standard. Disputes over intellectual property rights continue, with 3Com, Lucent, and Motorola at center stage.
Motorola has reduced the price of their 56K modems by up to 40%.
Xircom has expanded its line of K56flex modem and combo cards for laptops.
Icanet, a Florida Internet service provider, is giving 56K modems to customers who sign up for two years of service at $19.95 per month.
Todd Wasserman of Computer Retail Week reports that 3Com is re-thinking the U.S. Robotics LAN Linker Dual Analog, a 112K bonding modem/router slated for October. That story includes a link to an older Wasserman story about the challenges ISPs face in deploying bonding modem technology.
Followup to Monday's news
In Monday's news, I noted that I was searching for confirmation that Cardinal, E-Tech, and Global Village were offering free upgrades to the final ITU 56K standard. I'm happy to report that all three companies responded.
Cardinal is guaranteeing free upgrades to the 56K standard, as stated on this page.
An E-Tech representative said his company will provide upgrades to the standard. At press time, I did not have a URL.
As noted in Monday's news, a Global Village representative said the company does not yet have a guaranteed upgrade, but there are statements to the contrary on the company's web page, and 56K.COM readers report getting different information. The Global Village representative emailed me just before press time and said that "free software upgrade to ITU-56" stickers are being added to some units, but wasn't sure which models. I'll seek further clarification.
This month's PC Magazine reviews 56K modems from 3Com/U.S. Robotics, Best Data, Boca, Cardinal, Diamond, E-Tech, Global Village, Hayes, Logicode, Motorola, Practical Peripherals, and Zoom.
Note that the review states that Cardinal, E-Tech, and Global Village are guaranteeing free upgrades to the ITU 56K standard, but this may be incorrect. None of the three companies state this on their web sites. I have already confirmed that Global Village has not yet made this announcement, and I have requested clarification from Cardinal and E-Tech.
PC WEEK's Stephanie LaPolla notes Prodigy's plans for x2 access, and reports that SureRemote, a service of AOL's soon-to-be-spun-off ANS, will now offer 56K speeds. ANS has a press release, which puts the number of 56K dial-in cities at eighty.
Paula Musich of PC WEEK discusses UUNet's announcement of IP multicast service, which allows data to be broadcast over the Internet in a way that's analogous to the way TV programming is broadcast. Though other push and pull technologies have offered similar results, this is the first to use a standard set by the Internet Engineering Task Force.
VersaNET's ISP Accelerator is a low-cost K56flex server solution.
Chris Mayer writes:
On Hayes FTP site for the Accura K56flex modems there is a flash for users who have an early V0.110 firmware level. (ACCIN52A.EXE) Don't be fooled! This does not update the ROM fixed data pump. If you are considering buying a Hayes K56 modem and check for a level of V0.519 or later and see V0.520 it has the non-upgradable data pump and must be returned!
As noted in the Troubleshooting Guide, you can find out if your K56flex modem has a fixed datapump. Type ATI6 in a terminal program (such as Windows 95 HyperTerminal or ZTerm for the Mac). If the result includes the letters "47BA", you have a non-upgradeable datapump. You should return it for a replacement. To check the firmware, use ATI3. V.110 and V.0520 are two firmware versions associated with the non-upgradeable datapumps.
Changes @ 56K.COM
If it seems like I post a change list every week or two, you're not imagining things. Web sites are dynamic, or should be, and I like to keep 56K.COM fresh.
One change is that I'm starting to attribute authors in addition to the magazine in which their articles appear. I originally started doing this when referring to Brian McWilliams's articles in PC World, following his interview with me. Then Sonnet mentioned me in regard to an article I wrote for TechWeb, and I thought that was nice. So now whenever possible I'll extend the same courtesy to other magazine authors.
The other change is the background stripe. I had the opportunity to see the background on another computer with a less-capable video card, and felt that it interfered excessively with the text. The new background image is less obtrusive, and is 8 kilobytes smaller than the old background.
56K.COM is written and maintained by Les Jones. Artwork by Mark Maxwell. Copyright 1997 Softwords.
