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                              Technical issues

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Q. How can you receive data at 56Kbps when the theoretical limit of
Shannon's Law is about 35 Kbps?

A. Shannon's limit is theoretically determined by the impairments (noise)
in the telephone

link. This new technique relies on a reduced noise environment due to a

digital connection to the network by the service provider and a new
encoding

technique.

Q. Why hasn't this technology been developed before?

A. Actually, the concept has been around for a number of years but it

hasn't been practical because most modems installed at service providers

used to use analog connections to interface to the network.

Q. Is this new high speed analog modem technology a compression algorithm
or a modulation scheme?

A. It is neither a compression algorithm nor a modulation scheme. Data is
actually passed on the telephone line at 56 Kbps. It is a technique for
encoding data for transmission over the telephone line -- we prefer to
refer to it as an encoding technique instead of a modulation scheme.

Q. What's the difference between modulation and encoding schemes?

A. In modulation, a carrier is modified so that it carries information.
Ordinary modems modulate a carrier to carry digital data. In this new
technique we encode the data. By "encoding", we mean that data is sent in
digital form through the network, encoded in such a manner that it can pass
through the users analog telephone link at a high rate. This is a very
technical area which can best be understood by reading our white paper
describing the technology. The paper will be available on our Web site at
www.nb.rockwell.com

Q. Is this new 56 Kbps analog modem technology an extension of V.34
(28.8/33.6 Kbps)?

A. No, the techniques used in V.34 (28.8Kbps) have been exploited to their
limits.

This is a new technique where the network is viewed as a digital
transmission medium and the data is encoded for transmission over the
user's telephone line, also known as the analog local loop.

Q. Can you define this new product within the context of ISDN, frame relay,
cable modems or ADSL?

A. There are no relationships. In reference to all of these techniques, the
advantage of this new technique is that it works over the existing switched
telephone network. It does not require the telephone company to replace or
add any new equipment.

Q. How does the user upgrade or migrate their existing modem?

A. End user product upgrading or migration will be determined by the
specific manufacturers' modem implementation and market strategy.

Q. Does the user need an additional phone line?

A. No, this new technology will work over existing analog phone lines.

Q. Will it work on long distance calls or only local calls?


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