Re: K56Flex/X2 dilemna
Andrew J. Doane (adoane@eagle.ais.net)
Thu, 28 Aug 1997 15:13:33 -0500 (CDT)
[Charset ISO-8859-1 unsupported, filtering to ASCII...]
> > I would like to hear feedback on how other ISPs are dealing with this
> > current dilemna. And it doesn't with the patent and legal dispute over
> the
> > current ITU 56K standard.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Turnando Fuad
> > NSNet
>
> Well here in Buckeye Land we have told our clients for almost a year now
> that we will not support X2. I took the history stance, that way back in
> the day, USR came out with proprietary 9600 baud technology. It eventually
> was washed out with the rest of the industry. As the modem manufactures
> picked sides it became obvious that X2 was not going to be the only
> solution, let alone the most requested. We waited on Flex and have
> probably lost a total of 5 clients to our choice. We aggressively told all
> of our clients that we would not support X2 and to not bother buying the
> modems. Many seemed pleased that we had at least made a decision and that
> allowed them to be more knowledgeable with their purchases.
> Since the 56K modems have come out. We have had numerous clients thank us
> again for the amount of information we put out about our standards. Like I
> said before, many thanked us for making a decision while other ISP's hadn't
> made up their mind one way or the other. We actively advertised the fact
> that the new 56K modems were in and running and have attracted a whole new
> base of clients that have moved from ISP's supporting X2 at the last
> minute.
> All in all the big debate really never was an issue on this end. We cater
> to mainly business clients and that type of customer usually doesn't care
> about the nuts and bolts. Just solutions.
What you did for your users was a diservice. We have been supporting x2
since the beginning with success. We saw an a 20% increase in
subscription rates because we supported x2. We also support K56flex,
but I would guesstimate that the ratio of x2 to k56 users is 10:1.
Granted, we had x2 online before k56flex (because USR was able to produce,
instead of just talk), which would explain why we have more x2 users
than k56. However, we have *FAR* more problems with k56 than we do with
x2, both from a technology perspective and technical support.
I know this is a heated war, and you're right, a standard will develop
and everyone will conform to it; but I'm sure it will be a flash upgrade
for all my USRobotics gear and a hardware swap with my rockwell based
modems.
Just my $.02
/ajd/
--
_/_/ _/ _/_/_/_/ Andrew J. Doane
_/ _/ _/ _/ Director, Network Operations
_/_/_/_/ _/ _/_/_/_/ American Information Systems, Inc.
_/ _/ _/ _/ Email: adoane@ais.net, http://www.ais.net
_/ _/ _/ _/_/_/_/ (312) 255-8500 Voice, (312) 255-8501 Fax
For my PGP public key, email me with the
subject "pgp request"