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newsletter://mv.com
March 1998
Standardization of "56K" modems
1997 brought the battle of two new implementations of high-speed
modems: the X2 protocol by US Robotics / 3Com vs the K56flex protocol by
Rockwell and Lucent. While different at a technical level, both were
designed to hook into the digital signaling used by most telephone systems.
Both designs required a digital connection to the telephone company on one
end (the ISP end) and a normal telephone line on the other (the customer
end), and both provided for theoretical connection rates of up to 56Kbps in
the download direction (from the ISP towards the ISP customer) and up to
33.6Kbps in the upload direction. Both designs were submitted to the ITU
for consideration as an eventual standard. During the year, most ISPs
began adding support for either one standard or the other, and ISP custo-
mers in general made their purchasing decisions accordingly. Individuals
as well as ISPs expected to be able to migrate to the eventual standard
with little trouble.
In February 1998 the ITU agreed on a specification for a new standard,
named V.90, which combined elements of both K56flex and X2. (While the
agreement has been formulated, it is not scheduled for official approval as
a standard until this fall.) The modem-side implementation of the V.90
protocol has preceded the server-side implementation - you have likely
already seen V.90 modems appearing on the shelves and in the catalogs.
Don't let this mislead you, though. While it's true you can now buy V.90
modems and in some cases upgrade your existing modem to support V.90, the
software for the ISP equipment will likely not be ready for another month
or two. Even when it is ready, we can expect a period where there are
problems of interoperability between different manufacturers' implementa-
tions.
Bottom line is: V.90 will take some time to be developed for ISP use,
and some more time to settle down via real-world testing. Until then, you
will still need to make sure the modem that you use can support the K56flex
protocol in order to dial into any of MV's K56flex (or K56flex/V.90) capa-
ble lines.
Is it really 56K?
K56flex, X2, and now V.90 modems are often euphemistically referred to
as "56K" modems. This is an unfortunate label for several reasons.
Although the technology allows for a theoretical maximum data rate of
56Kbps in one direction, FCC regulations limit the implementation to a max-
imum of 54Kbps to prevent interference with other circuits. In practice,
the inbound connect rate that you get depends on how your call is carried
to us - the physical distance traveled, the quality of the wires, and the
switching equipment that your call passes through. Most callers who are
close to the city or town where the K56flex number is located can expect
download connect rates of from 44Kbps to 50Kbps.
New K56flex access at MV
Our deployment of K56flex access has been severely limited by availa-
bility of PRI circuits from Bell Atlantic. For this and other reasons
we've looked to other vendors, and by the time you read this we should have
new PRI service in Concord and Manchester through Brooks Fiber.
Acceptance of the currently-deployed K56flex access has been very
strong, and we've ordered additional Bell Atlantic facilities in Nashua to
give us another 23 dialin ports. These will be added to the current Nashua
K56flex access number. Installation was originally scheduled for February
but was pushed back to March.
Please watch our web page and our newsgroups for updates and access
information.
New Dedicated and High Speed Rates
Effective January 1 1998 we've made a number of changes to the pricing
of dedicated IP dialup, leased line, and frame relay services. Please
refer to our web page for complete pricing information, but an overview of
the changes follows.
* Unbundling of charges for subnet allocations and network routing.
Previously, we had separate rates for dedicated dialup for personal
use (with a single IP address) and dedicated dialup for office use
(with a class C network allocation and routing). High-speed lines
included routing for up to a class C network. As of January 1, the
routing of an Internet subnet to a dedicated or high-speed account has
become a separate charge item. Note that this does not represent a
price increase; in many cases it represents a decrease.
There are several reasons for this change, the primary ones being:
first, all network allocations in the US are now being charged by a
registration authority (see www.arin.net), and we need to institute a
separate charging structure as well. Second, a growing scarcity of
available network numbers has prompted us to offer pricing incentives
to use network allocations wisely. Third, routing congestion prompts
us to use pricing incentives against the use of old, privately-
allocated class C networks. If you're currently using such a private
class C network, you'll save money (our fees and ARIN's fees) by giv-
ing it back and obtaining a different class C network or subnet from
us.
* Reduction in frame relay rates. We have reduced our rates for 56Kb
and 384Kb frame relay access; the most significant reduction is for
56Kb access. Frame relay service gives you a high-speed digital con-
nection to MV from anywhere in the state. Note that a recent tariff
change has removed any distance charges from the telephone company
charges on frame relay, so we are now able to offer a fixed rate for
frame relay service anywhere in New Hampshire. Check out our new
frame relay rates and descriptions on our web page; you may find that
this has suddenly become a viable option for you or your business.
* Reduction in leased line rates. We've also reduced our leased line
rates across the board. Remember that leased line telephone company
charges are distance sensitive (that is, what you pay to the telephone
company depends on how far away you are from an MV location), and this
is described in the rates on our web page.
Other rate change
Another minor change: we've lowered the charge for time that you use
beyond the included number of hours for dialup IP and shell access. Time
beyond 100 hours is now charged at 25 cents an hour plus the $20 base
charge, and time beyond 200 hours is charged at 20 cents an hour plus the
$30 base charge.
MV index of interesting facts
Number of news articles received per day: 500,000
Count of news articles retrieved by MV users per day: 70,000
Email messages delivered per day by MV servers: 35,000
Amount of RAM in use in MV servers: over 500MB
Amount of disk space spinning in in MV servers: over 65GB
Number of LED blinky lights at MV: over 2,000
MV Communications PO Box 4963, Manchester, NH 03108 (603) 629-0000