Motorola Inc has announced that it will start shipping its V.34 28.8Kb Power Class modems with VocalTec Inc’s Internet phone software in the UK from next month. Motorola has renamed the UK version On-Line, and and says it will have slightly different functionality but the same speed as PowerClass. VocalTec’s Internet software needed in order to transmit digitised speech over the Internet will cost $100. Motorola will be selling the modems for $375 and plans to incorporate pre-coded coupons within the modem boxes to enable users to download the software as freeware. Motorola says this is to ensure that users have an Internet connection and do not assume that the speech software operates independently, says Ray Wright, director of marketing for ana logue transmission products. Fears have been voiced that too many Internet phone calls may clog an already busy and often slow network, but Wright says that each digitised conversation takes only 10Kbps of bandwidth. The company is also looking at a full duplex system in the future, says Wright, since half duplex enforces rather polite conversation because callers cannot speak at the same time. The phone system has been criticised in the US by Internet chat-line system operators, who say VocalTec has been using Internet Relay Chat servers to log names of people on the network, but Vocaltec says that it has now set up its own Web site.
