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V.92 modems step up speed, flexibility By
Kevin Washington
Baltimore Sun
For all
the talk these days about broadband Internet connections,
you'd think no one visited cyberspace using a plain old telephone
modem any more.
But, by far, dial-up Web surfers still outnumber high-speed
customers, and they have a high-tech advance to cheer in the
new millennium.
Manufacturers have begun selling analog modems to take advantage
of new V.92 technology, an upgrade from V.90, which brought
order to chaos in the modem world nearly three years ago.
While previous upgrades in dial-up modems brought speedier
Internet connections, the International Telecommunications
Union, which adopts so-called "V" standards for modems, voted
last summer to make life easier for dial-up customers who
use a single phone line to surf the Internet and make regular
calls.
But don't throw out your old modem and buy a V.92 model right
away. Internet Service Providers will have to upgrade their
equipment before consumers can take advantage of the modem
upgrade. That may not happen on a large scale until next year.
And some modem owners won't have to buy anything - they'll
be able to upgrade their equipment with a simple download.
Although cable and DSL Internet services get more publicity
these days, dial-up connections will predominate through at
least 2004, said Christine Pomeroy, vice president of marketing
for U.S.
Robotics, one of the modem industry's leading manufacturers.
Moreover, about 100 million analog modems are already used
worldwide. "You can't get broadband everywhere, and we continue
to see growth - between 14 percent and 17 percent per year
- in the telephone modem market," Pomeroy said.
According to EMarketer, a New York research firm tracking
Internet usage, only 14 percent of the nation's 39.8 million
Internet subscribers had broadband access at the end of 1999.
For the rest, V.92 modems offer modest improvements:
- Call waiting for Internet connections. If you have call
waiting and receive a call while online, you can put your
Internet connection on hold for a short period while you take
the call. If you have Caller ID, you can screen your calls.
- Quicker connections to the Internet. Every time a dial-up
modem makes a connection to an ISP, the modem negotiates a
path to the Internet, trying different speeds and protocols.
With a feature called "Quick Connect," the modem first tries
the path it used last, cutting connection time by as much
as 50 percent.
- Faster upload speeds. A dial-up modem may download data
from the Internet at 56 kilobits-per-second, but it uploads
data at only 33.6 Kbps. The new standard allows data to be
transmitted at up to 48 Kbps, making it easier to play games
online or send long e-mails, photos and spreadsheets.
In addition, V.92 modems will take advantage of new compression
technology called V.44, also adopted by the ITU. Data is compressed
so that more can travel between ISPs and modems - squeezing
more into the pipeline between the Web and your computer.
The better the compression, the more data that can be shipped.
Depending upon the content being transmitted, some users will
see speed increases when viewing Web pages. Even with the
changes, most users won't see the advertised speed of 56 Kbps
because line conditions and traffic limit transfers to the
upper 40s and low 50s. Wiring in some neighborhoods will still
limit users to 33.6 Kbps or slower.
If you own a V.90 modem, you'll have to find out whether you
can upgrade it with software from the manufacturer. U.S. Robotics
V.90 modems with Flash memory can be upgraded to the new standard,
according to Rob Thomsen, the company's software product manager.
If you don't own a modem that can be upgraded and want the
new features, expect to pay $50 to $100 for a V.92 modem.
Although Zoom Telephonics began shipping V.92 modems last
month and U.S. Robotics plans to do so in December, the new
modems' features won't take effect until ISPs upgrade their
equipment.
Several providers had only recently learned of the new standard
and had no immediate plans for incorporating it into their
service.
"We have not yet seen a published and approved standard for
the V.92, so we can't speak to the product," said Nicholas
J. Graham, a spokesman for America Online, the nation's largest
Internet gateway.
"As we did for the V.90 modem, we will give the V.92 a thorough
analysis, testing and evaluation when it becomes available
in the marketplace." |
