Re: my new ISP provider

[Allan Jones <ampj@tiac.net>]

Michael Shields wrote:
> 
> > I have just switched from GNN (going out of business) to NETCOM. In the
> > process I have also replaced my generic no-name 28.8 with a brand new
> > USR 33.6 w/flash BIOS chip, upgradable to 56.7, when it becomes
> > available (cost-only $60 after the rebate, that USR will be running till
> > the 31 Mar). Those contemplating the move to USR hardware: run, not walk
> > to your local CompUSA to get a USR No.1125 for $100 and a $40 rebate
> > coupon from USR.
> 
> Augh...  if you want to read about Audis just delete this message.
> 
> Currently there are three proposed 56k technologies and none shipping.
> There is the USR, the Lucent, and the Rockwell.  Lucent and Rockwell
> have promised (but not yet demonstrated) that they will make theirs
> interoperable.  USR is going proprietary on this.  Everyone is promising
> to support the ITU standard when it's ready but that will be two years
> or so.
> 
> Of course it also needs to be supported on the ISP end.  This is the
> tricky part.  You need to have digital entrance facilities rather than
> blocks and blocks of analog lines in order to support any of these
> technologies, and the vendors of servers that will work with digital
> entrance are, except for USR, all supporting the Lucent/Rockwell
> (when that is one protocol) technology.  Exclusively.  Cisco, Ascend,
> even Livingston.  The reason for this being that USR's license on their
> X2[tm] protocol prohibits you from supporting the other.
> 
> What this boils down to is that to take a call using X2 (vs. 33.6 or
> the Lucent/Rockwell K56Flex protocol) you must be using USR equipment
> on both ends.  I have worked with the USR Total Control rack which would
> be on the ISP end, and I was *not* impressed.
> 
> Basically, USR is doing all this to buy ISP market share.  They hope that
> by being first to market and by marketing heavily, they can get enough
> consumer demand to bludgeon their way to higher market share on that end.
> It's very cynical.
> 
> Complicating all this is that the FCC has prohibited signals at
> the level that would allow 56k, so they are all downgraded to 53k;
> and that the stream is asymmetric 53k down and 28.8k up; and that you
> don't get an improvement in latency, which affects the responsiveness
> of the connection.  It will not be a doubling in speed.
> 
> In summary... it's not as simple as "run out and buy a Sportster".
> 
> I recommend that you buy a cheap 28.8 modem of any brand other than Zoom,
> Zoltrix, or Prometheus, and wait until after the big 56k shootout to
> see who's left standing.  Then upgrade.
> --
> Shields.
> [yeah, I worry about this all day.]

	Since_someone_else_started_this(and I don't really have contact w/ too
many computer-literate people), does anyone out there have experience w/
Highway One(a cable ISP at  http//:www.highway1.com )? In my town, they
offer to come out to the home and SUPPLY, INSTALL, and SET-UP the
hardware neccessary for a cable hook-up(which is 12 times as fast as
ISDN!) for only $149.95! It works both ways(you can UPLOAD data at 300K
BPS) and you can simultaneously watch cable T.V.! It is fairly cheap
also, $49.95/month w/ a present cable hook-up(who doesn't already have
that in their house?)!
		Feedback?(not neccessary if I went out of bounds)
					Allan