Skokie, Illinois-headquartered US Robotics Inc has now confirmed that there is a problem with its Sportster 28.8Kbps modem, which causes it to drop down in speed irrationally under certain line conditions and certain circumstances. The bug had been widely rumoured on Wall Street, where short sellers used complaints posted on Internet user groups to try and drive down the company’s share price. US Robotics is playing down the extent of the problem, which it says occurs predominantly when the temperature of the modem changes as it is warming up, and even then only when this temperature change is coupled with the (unspecified) line conditions. In addition, the company said in a statement that Under these exceptional conditions the modem usually will not drop below 16.8Kbps, and that, once it was fully warmed up, the speed would usually increase again. Other models in US Robotics’ modem range are not affected, the company added, and all Sportster 28.8Kbps modems shipped from now on have had the problem fixe d. US Robotics says it is issuing a code revision claimed to rectify the problem – in the form of an EPROM – to all customers that request it. To date it says that it has only received about 200 requests for the revision, and that only a small number of users will have been affected. Indeed, the company adds that the low number of revision requests is in itself an indication of the small scale of the problem – although what seems more likely is that other affected users are blaming the slow transmission on a faulty line, rather than the modem.
