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56K IS ON ITS WAY!
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On December 30 of last year I posted a System News message explaining
BCPL's position on the new 56K modems that were just about to hit the
market. At that time there were three 56K technologies being proposed: 
"K56Plus" from Rockwell International, "V.Flex" from Lucent Technologies,
and "X2" from U.S. Robotics.  These technologies were not compatible with
one another.  An X2 modem could connect at 56K only with another X2 modem,
a K56Plus modem only with another K56Plus modem, and so on.

At that time the International Telephone Union (ITU) was expected to
decide on an industry-wide 56K standard by early 1998.  Like most small
providers, we chose to wait until the ITU 56K standard emerged. 

Several things have happened since then to change our position: 

o The ITU's deliberations on the new standard have been slowed by legal
  wranglings and patent disputes.  Many industry watchers say it will be a
  miracle if the ITU 56K standard is ready to be announced before early
  1999, a year later than originally expected.

o Rockwell and Lucent have combined forces, merging their K56Plus and
  V.Flex into a jointly developed technology called "K56FLEX".  This
  reduces the field to two competing technologies - K56FLEX and X2.

o Cisco Systems, the manufacturers of the AS5200 access servers we use,
  and Microcom, the makers of the modems cards used in those access
  servers, have released a 56K hardware upgrade for the access servers.
  Cisco has offered the upgrade at a very attractive price.  In fact, our
  most recently purchased AS5200 qualifies for a free upgrade.  In order
  to get this special deal we must order before December 30.

It no longer makes sense to wait, so (trumpet fanfare please) we are going
to upgrade to 56K.  One set of replacement modems (the free ones)  has
already been ordered.  When they arrive later this month, they will be
installed in the most heavily used of our access servers (dialup-1) for a
torture test.  We will run the test until nearly the end of December.  If
the new modems cause no incurable problems, we will then order enough
modems to upgrade the rest of our access servers. 

If the test is a failure, then we will revert back to our 33.6K modems. 
However, Cisco is very conservative when it comes to releasing new
hardware and software.  The new modems have been undergoing torture
testing at Cisco and in the field since last Spring, so I will be very
surprised if they prove to be unreliable.

Naturally, there is a catch.  These are K56FLEX modems, not X2. If you
have an X2 modem you will not be able to connect to us at 56K. You should
be able to connect at 28.8K or 33.6K, just as you are probably doing now,
but not at 56K.  33.6K is the fastest speed possible between a K56FLEX
modem and an X2 modem. 

Therefore if you are considering purchase of a 56K modem, we recommend
that you buy a K56FLEX model.  This will give you the highest connection
speeds possible with our new modems.

If you decide to purchase (or already own) an X2 modem, all is not lost. 
Almost all makers of 56K modems - both K56FLEX and X2 - guarantee that you
will be able to upgrade to the ITU 56K standard when it is released. 
Cisco has guaranteed that their K56FLEX modems will be upgradable free of
charge to the ITU standard, so we will install that upgrade when it
becomes available.  If you have an X2 modem, and if you upgrade it to the
ITU 56K standard when we do, then you will be able to connect to us at
the highest possible modem speeds.

Be aware, however, that those "highest possible speeds" will not be 56K.
Although 56K modems are theoretically capable of that speed, they are
limited to an actual maximum of 53K by FCC regulations.  In addition,
studies done by providers of 56K service show that most users of 56K
modems rarely get connections faster than 40 - 45 K.  For more about this,
and tons of other useful information about 56K modeming, point your
browser at this Web site:

  http://www.56k.com

Updates on the upgrade will be posted in System News as the project
progresses.

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