PW>> I wonder why they didn't go upto 33.6Kbps earlier???

 RB>> Who.....Rockwell



 PW> Anyone!



 RB>> The BIG reason was that Motorola and other companies that have

 RB>> had 33600 for a couple of yrs (1994) aimed them at industry (the



 PW> You mean V.34+ actually existed in 1994?!?



Yes Motorola or was it AT&T had it in modems back then.

USR was beta testing it and released it to the public in May 95.



 RB>> price was just too high for the averge home user in many cases.)

 RB>> The USR Courier is designed for the Business market not home use.



 PW> So it's not exactly the "best value" modem for SOHO?



 It is when you get better, more reliable connects all the time.

 If you buy the cheap modems you end up paying as much in the long run

 (drop outs and bad connects, forcing you to dial back in all the time

 and running up your phone bill) as for a courier.



 RB>> USR brought it to the people with Flash Rom making it affordable

 RB>> (free) to the mass market.



 PW> Which lead to big bucks for USR, right?



Don't know, I'm not a bean counter for USR.



 RB>> The reason that it is flooding the market now is that a fair

 RB>> percentage of the worlds modems use Rockwell chips and rockwell

 RB>> have only just released a 33600 chipset. (way behind the others on

 RB>> this one) All the other compaies used there own chipset.



 PW> The actual protocols were still compatible, weren't they?



YES



 RB>> Another reason that you are seeing more 33600 modems in the bottom end

 RB>> of the range (Cheap Rockwell clones) is that V.34 (33600) modems are

 RB>> now old technology. The 56K modems are being pushed by marketing now.



 PW> Are those buddy-to-buddy yet?



No, you must be digital one end.



 RB>> There will be a bit of dumping on the market (Rockwell clones) in the

 RB>> next few months.



 PW> What is the best chipset?



A Texas instuments Programable DSP as used in the USR Sportster and

Courier. Enabling them to be upgraded (yet again) to the 56k

technology ( to be released in Jan 97 as an SDL for flashing into the

Courier Modem.)



Russell

--- Terminate 4.00/Pro