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K56Flex joins battle to control territory PC modem market

Zoom Telephonics, a maker of modems and other data communications equip ment, has started to sell its K56Flex fax modem in Hong Kong through distributor Yutron.

K56Flex is supported by modem chip-makers Rockwell and Lucent, who have about 70 per cent of the world modem chip market.

Zoom's international account representative Vivian Chiu said: 'Zoom believes that K56Flex is positioned for the dominant share of the 56K market.' K56Flex also is backed by central site equipment manufacturers making up about 70 per cent of the installed base of central site modem ports which represents an installed base of more than 600 Internet service providers (ISP) worldwide.

In Hong Kong, ISPs tend to support K56Flex along with the competing US Robotics X2 standard. Leaders of both standards are competing by providing ISPs with free software upgrade.

Both Rockwell and US Robotics have applied for International Telecommunications Union (ITU) approval. A decision is not expected before next year. Territory ISPs have announced that they will support both types of modems which means they will have to split their pool of lines into two and provide each group of users with different numbers.

Unofficial figures put the number of K56 lines at 10,000 lines, ahead of X2 with 700.

These are still small numbers, but Vicky Au of Yutron's marketing department said she expected sales of 56K modems to gain momentum in about three months and start picking up within a year.

According to Ms Au, Hong Kong ISP CyberXpress was the first to offer K56Flex with Ascend equipment. 'Beta testing with Hongkong Telecom IMS is to take place next,' she said.

Also controversial is the actual transmission rate over 56K modems, as 56,000 bits per second applies only to data. Downloads from compatible sites are closer to 50 Kbps than 56 Kbps.

Ms Chiu said in Boston, where Zoom products are manufactured, data downloads reached 54 Kbps. In Hong Kong speeds had been recorded anywhere between 48 Kbps and 53 Kbps depending on the location and telephone switch.

'We expect Yutron to be one of the top five distributors of 56K modems in Hong Kong,' Ms Au said. 'Given their unique features, Zoom modems are quite competitive.' Prices range from $1,400 for the internal model and $1,600 for the external one.

Tackling the temporary lack of approved standard, one of the key features of Zoom/Faxmodems K56 is the digital signal processor (DSP) that can be updated from flash memory instead of being 'hard-coded', which means all codes are software reprogrammable, including possible upgrades to future standards.

Standards already supported by Zoom/Faxmodem include the ITU.324 and V.80 for videoconferencing applications - no mean feat when industry observers predict 1997 will be the year videophone capability will become a standard feature of PCs.

Another key feature of Zoom/Faxmodems K56 is lightning protection. According to Ms Chiu, 80 per cent of modem crashes are caused by telephone switches being struck by lightning - particularly in the Asia-Pacific region which experiences frequent electrical storms.

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