Rockwell launches high-speed modem technology for home user

Electronic News, Nov 3, 1997 by Will Wade

Seal Beach, Calif.--Rockwell Semiconductor Systems has launched a new high-speed modem technology aimed at the home user which it says can pump data through the pipe at up to 1-megabit per second, nearly 20x faster than the current top speed for analog modems. Called consumer digital subscriber line (CDSL), the new technology is a digital protocol that uses standard copper phone wiring and may represent the next generation of data communication. Rockwell is moving into a very competitive market, however, because there are other technologies already vying to deliver high-speed data to the same home market.

CDSL is similar to asymmetrical digital subscriber line (ADSL) technology, which is currently seeing advanced testing and early deployment in some U.S. markets. Unlike ADSL though, Rockwell's new modem format does not require installation of line splitters in homes which means easier and less expensive activation, according to the company.

However, CDSL's 1M downstream and 128 kilobits-per-second upstream data transfer speeds are significantly slower than ADSL. Various ADSL systems deliver up to 8M downstream and 1M upstream, which mirrors the most common usage model of heavy downloading from the Internet paired with light uploading dominated by e-mail.

"Internet users are starving for bandwidth," said Raouf Halim, VP and GM of Rockwell's Network Access Division. Mr. Halim expects users to begin migrating from 56K analog modems to higher speed digital formats such as CDSL within the year.

Rockwell has intentionally designed CDSL to ease this transition, according to Michael Henderson, the company's marketing director for ADSL technology. This includes eliminating the need for splitters, and selling the new modems through standard retail channels to keep the new technology in the consumers' comfort zone. However, current serial ports can't support such high-speed data transfers, so CDSL modems are most likely to appear initially as internal cards installed in new PCs.

Mr. Henderson said CDSL chips could be available to OEMs by spring 1998, and that complete modem systems should list for less than $200. Rockwell has timed this announcement to coincide with an International Telecommunications Union (ITU) working group meeting aimed at developing DSL standards, and Mr. Henderson said he hopes to see CDSL technology adopted into upcoming high-speed standards.

Greg Sheppard, chief analyst for semiconductor application programs at Dataquest, says this would be a coup for Rockwell because multisourcing will be a key element of moving CDSL into mass deployment. A big part of the puzzle which remains in doubt is the telephone companies, because selling CDSL systems to consumers is only half the battle.

So far, Mr. Sheppard says high costs have made phone companies reluctant to upgrade their infrastructures to support high speed digital data communications. This has been one of the barriers to ADSL implementation, but he says the telcos are facing increasing competition from cable companies for control of the home market, and they need to get on the ball or risk losing a significant potential revenue stream.

"I think the telcos are going to take a hard look at this, and they need to. It boils down to somebody bellying up to the bar and taking a risk," said Mr. Sheppard. "There is some serious budding competition from cable, so the phone companies might be forced to finally start adding DSL lines."

Cable companies also face significant upgrade costs but they are ahead of the telcos. Some 15 percent of the North American cable infrastructure currently supports two-way data communication over standard coaxial cable, and the industry has already announced a standard protocol. The bulk of the upgraded wiring is in major cities such as New York, Boston, San Diego and parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, and market research firm In-Stat estimates there will be 171,000 cable modems in operation by the end of this year.

Cable modems are even faster than either DSL approach, and can deliver downstream transfer rates up to 20M. Said to have a current value of $79 million, this market is expected to grow to $2.1 billion by 2001, with some 10 million units expected to be on-line worldwide by that time.

Rockwell's Mr. Henderson agrees cable will pose the greatest competition for the new CDSL systems. He said that phone companies will be able to add a surcharge for CDSL service to homes, and the additional revenue may motivate them to adopt the new technology. In addition, he says CDSL is easier for telcos to implement at the head-end than ADSL, providing additional incentive to adopt CDSL over its faster relative.

With analog technology pushed about as fast as its going to get, there's no doubt that consumers will soon demand faster Internet access through one of these digital applications. At this point it's hard to tell which has the edge, although cable has an early advantage in terms of both speed and deployment; but as Dataquest's Mr. Sheppard observes, "It's still a horse race."