Be all that you can be: GoDigital to bring 56K modems up to speed

High-speed Internet access is making a name for itself in the industry, but dial-up remains the most common form of access. With this in mind, GoDigital Networks developed a product to make analog Internet access live up to its potential.

The company this week is expected to announce its GDSL XCel-8 transmission system, an enhancement to its GDSL platform that will allow 56 kb/s modems to operate at the V.90 standard they were designed to provide. The product will be available in June.

"The phone network wasn't designed for the dial-up modem," said David Krantz, vice president of marketing for GoDigital. "The same people who are too far from the [central office] to get DSL can't even get the full benefit of dial-up modem. You really have a widening gap between the haves and the have-nots."

As Internet use grows, so does the number of consumer complaints about access speeds. Most get only a 28.8 kb/s connection when using a 56 kb/s modem. "We've been told it can be their [carriers'] largest complaint category from customers," Krantz said.

The GDSL XCel-8 is a line card that fits into GoDigital's platform - a shelf located in a carrier's CO - and divides a single copper pair into eight full 64 kb/s lifelines, each with V.90 capability.

"We expand the bandwidth on the copper wire actually to 544 kb/s," Krantz said. "We put a big copper pipe on that wire and have the ability to repeater it multiple times."

The line card will "almost double" the access speed at which consumers are connected, increasing the speed to at least mid-40 kb/s and potentially all the way to 53.3 kb/s - the maximum speed allowed over a 56 kb/s modem, he added. The card should work with all mainline modems.

More than 85 carriers use GoDigital's platform to extend their DSL capabilities by at least 25 miles. GoDigital offers GDSL-8, which turns a copper pair into eight digitized POTS lines capable of delivering high-speed access, and GDSL BRI 3, which triples the number of ISDN DSL lines a carrier can run from the CO.

The company's current customers likely will play the biggest role in using the new platform option, Krantz said.

If a carrier's lines are working, it doesn't have incentive to upgrade, he said. "But in cases where they're getting heavy complaints from somebody, here's an opportunity to say, `We can take care of that quickly and simply.'"

The product also is ideal for carriers establishing new lines. "If you have a solution for V.90, why not use it?" Krantz said.

Relying on consumer complaints to generate carrier use may be a dangerous strategy, said Kathie Hackler, a principal analyst with Dataquest. Only sophisticated users notice their access speeds, she said.

"[Most consumers] take the bit rate on the box at face value," she said. "The challenge for GoDigital will be convincing the carrier that this is something they need to pursue and spend some money on."

Telcos respond to cost savings and revenue potential, and the GDSL XCel-8 system offers the potential for loop recovery, which will help carriers with capacity problems, Hackler said.

But GoDigital faces stiff competition. Charles Industries introduced a similar product - the D56K CO terminal card - and has GTE as its main customer, said Avi Vaidya, vice president of engineering and chief technical officer for Charles. The company's eight-carrier client base also includes a number of Independent telcos in rural areas, he said.

"The response has been increasing," Vaidya said, noting that Charles has since added some capabilities to its product, including the capability to run two lines into a customer's home but give only one 56 kb/s data capacity. The minor change results in significant cost savings, he added.

"Once [carriers] start getting complaints about modem speed, they want to ensure if they're going to put anything new in network, then it better be V.90 compliant," Vaidya said. "It's more a matter of strategy since it is available."