Richard Town wrote in a message to David Bowerman:
 DB> Perhaps you should check the story that Rockwell is not going to be
 RT> "Story" is right.
Perhaps you have noticed who was quoted on that lack of interoperability 
testing?  You did notice that it was not a 3Com or Lucent representative?
So let's take a look at the news stories.  After all, you're as likely as I 
to have seen these reports.  Gee, gosh, golly, Mr. Town, it seems that 3Com 
and Lucent agreed to do interoperability testing back on January 20 while two 
weeks later, Rockwell is not committed to interop testing with anyone.
First let's look at the one from January 20, 1998.  The one about Lucent 
Technologies and 3Com agreeing to begin 56K modem compatibility testing using 
the ITU-T standard (or as much as had been agreed upon at the point in time).
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      Lucent Technologies and 3Com Corporation Agree to Begin 56K Modem
                Compatibility Testing Using New V.pcm Standard
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BW0252 JAN 20,1998 10:00 PACIFIC 13:00 EASTERN
(BW)(3COM/LUCENT)(COMS)(LU) Lucent Technologies and 3Com Corporation Agree
to Begin 56K Modem Compatibility Testing Using New "V.pcm" Standard
    Business Editors/Computer Writers
    BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 20, 1998--Lucent
Technologies (NYSE:LU) and 3Com Corporation (NASDAQ:COMS) today announced
that they will conduct joint interoperability testing of their
56-kilobits-per-second (Kbps)(1) industry-standard modems and modem chip
sets.
    The collaboration will ensure compatibility between the two companies'
modem products using an emerging industry standard referred to as V.pcm.
    An International Telecommunications Union (ITU) committee began working
in April 1997 to develop a standard for "pulse code modulation" (PCM) modems
-- the fastest analog modems available today. On December 4, 1997 the ITU
working group agreed to a compromise on key technical issues referred to as
V.pcm. The forthcoming standard, comprised of an equitable mix of K56flex and
x2 technology, will be determined at a plenary meeting of the ITU Study Group
16 in Geneva, Switzerland February 5-6.
    Both 3Com and Lucent expect to have interoperable products on the market
shortly after that ITU meeting, as well as software upgrades to make existing
K56flex(TM) and x2(TM) modems compliant with the soon-to-be-released 
tandard.
    "Interoperability testing is one of the first steps toward ensuring
compatibility," said Dale Walsh, senior vice president of advanced
development at 3Com. "Our goal is to provide Internet Service Providers
(ISPs) and end-users with universally compatible 56K service as soon as
possible. This is a significant win for consumers because we will be able to
deliver interoperable standards-based products to the market much faster. We
commend Lucent for its support of the ITU compromise reached earlier this
month and look forward to working with them."
    "3Com and Lucent are striving to have standards-compliant products on the
market as quickly as possible, and to upgrade the Lucent K56flex and 3Com x2
client and server modems already in use with V.pcm software," said Bob Rango,
general manager of modem integrated circuits for Lucent's Microelectronics
Group. "We expect other vendors will join this effort when they have
standard-based products to test."
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Now let's look at what a Rockwell representative had to say in a story from 
January 29.  A week later and Rockwell still hasn't cottoned on to the item 
about 3Com and Lucent doing interoperability testing.
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56-Kbps Modem Standard Smothered by Politics
by Brian McWilliams, PC World News Radio
January 29, 1998 - - The arrival of an international standard for
56-kbps modems was supposed to clear up a lot of marketplace
confusion. But on Thursday, analysts, modem vendors, and Internet
service providers indicated that things may get worse before they get
better.
This week, members of the International Telecommunications Union are
meeting in Geneva to hammer out a draft standard for V.pcm, a
"unified" 56 kbps protocol. The standard won't be finalized until
fall, but soon after the gathering wraps up on February 6, modem
makers plan to begin releasing firmware updates to their products to
support the new protocol.
However, because vendors from the opposing x2 and K56flex camps
couldn't agree to do interoperability testing, their initial V.pcm
products won't actually be interoperable.
As Moiz Beguwala, vice president of the personal communications
division at Rockwell, puts it, "Having a standard under this
particular scenario is a nonevent."
Beguwala says that users of older K56flex modems will be able to
connect at approximately 56 kbps rates to V.pcm remote access
equipment based on Rockwell chips. And x2 users will be able to
connect to V.pcm-equipped 3Com ports. But even with V.pcm code on both
ends, an x2 device connected to a K56flex device will top out at the
33.6 kbps of today's V.34 standard.
Until vendors perform interoperability testing of V.pcm, we'll
actually have five flavors of 56 kbps to contend with: K56flex, x2,
Rockwell's V.pcm, 3Com's V.pcm, and Lucent's V.pcm.
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And now for the last item.  Odd behaviour noted:  3Com is taking out ads for 
their compliant products and Rockwell is mentioned for it's statement that no 
interoperability testing will be done between Rockwell and other 
manufacturers.
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56K modem standard agreed but confusion continues
Wed, 04 Feb 1998 17:27:44 GMT - Rupert Goodwins
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
 
In a mammoth late-night session yesterday, the ITU group charged with
standardising 56K modems finished all the technical work and a
line-by-line read through of the draft V.pcm specification. A draft
standard is now expected to be complete by the meeting's end on
February 6. 
The Geneva, Switzerland meeting of Study Group 16 was described as
"being on a high after having completed the work" by a member of the
group, who also said that "it's some sort of a record for the ITU to
achieve this [modem standard] in such a short time". 
However, at least two companies represented in the Study Group were
behaving in odd ways. 3Com had already published a four-page
advertisement for its US Robotics 'ITU standard 56K modem' in US
magazines before the standard was finalised, and claimed, curiously,
that their's was the first such modem in existence. 
Meanwhile, Rockwell, the leading manufacturer of modem chipsets, has
gone on record as saying that it won't be doing any interoperability
testing between its modems and those of other manufacturers. In fact,
the company claims that its V.pcm modems will only talk to 3Com's at
33.6Kbps, the same speed as currently achievable using older
standards. 
This has caused widespread confusion in the Study Group, where,
according to a source "nobody here can understand this. It could
easily backfire; Rockwell, Lucent and 3Com are not the only V.pcm
implementers." 
-----------------------8<-cut-here--------------------------------------
Perhaps you should let us in on your sources that deny the above quotes from 
Moiz Beguwala?  Or is that another case of the famous Richard "Rockwell can 
do no wrong" Town view of reality?  Quote us a few sources contradicting 
those news stories that I've posted.  Let us have a few sources for your 
apparent belief that 3Com and Lucent will not be doing interoperability 
testing as one story says.  Let us have a few sources letting us know that 
Rockwell is actually committed to interoperability testing.  Perhaps a source 
for a story that Moiz Beguwala, vice president of Rockwell personal 
communications division was misquoted -- thought the written story does match 
rather well to the quotes in his own voice on the audio version of the story.
To requote you from the top of this message:
 RT> "Story" is right.
 DB> But then, I mustn't forget that to you, anything screwed up by
 DB> Rockwell is the fault of other folks for not being able to handle
 DB> Rockwell's screwups.
 RT> And still there's nothing about USR's once fabled V34 interop... 
Harping on USR's not keeping up with Rockwell's screwup of the week again?
Regards,
       David
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