US Robotics is now claiming that it will beat the Rockwell-Lucent alliance to ship the first 56Kbps modems (CI No 3,076). The company says it has now completed tests of its x2 technology in 87 US states, and that products will ship later this month. However, our sister publication Network Briefing reports, test results have revealed that a high percentage of calls made within seven regional Bell operating regions had only one analog-to- digital conversion in the path of the call, and therefore would not operate at the higher 56 Kbps rate. In a further effort to ensure that its modem standard is adopted before its rivals, US Robotics has applied for FCC certification for x2. Current FCC ruling prevents modems from operating at higher levels by placing a limit of 53 Kbps on the downstream link. The company has, however, designed its access server and concentrator x2 line to enable it to operate at the 56 Kbps and higher in countries where this limit is not imposed. The FCC has been coming under increasing pressure from modem manufacturers and standards organizations to raise the limit. US Robotics says it is now in the second phase of testing and will begin beta testing to determine further effects on telephone network performance through field trials with Internet service providers users worldwide. So far, service providers supporting the x2 modem standard number 100, 60 of them announced last week, including America Online Inc, Prodigy Services Co and CompuServe Inc. Service providers will be able to upgrade their remote access servers to x2 via a software upgrade. The company has announced a marketing program with Internet service providers called Xtreme Advantage Program designed to encourage further support.
