Joining the ADSL party U.S. Robotics confirms entry into high-speed access

Dominant modem maker U.S. Robotics is a serious player in the analog, digital and emerging 56 kb/s arenas. Now the company would like to stake a claim in high-speed access-asymmetrical digital subscriber line systems.

Its plans were disclosed by GlobeSpan Technologies last week. The carrierless amplitude/ phase modulation (CAP) chip maker asked U.S. Robotics to help announce that it is buying GlobeSpan's rate-adaptive CAP chipsets. U.S. Robotics obliged but is still working on further details.

"It's a market we ought to get in," said Ron Westernik, U.S. Robotics' assistant vice president for marketing and broadband access. "It's an extension of our core business. Our business is remote access. We feel ADSL is the next evolving step.

U.S. Robotics' first systems will be CAP-based modems and access multiplexers with frame relay connections.

Both CAP and frame relay were chosen because they allow the quickest time to market, Westernik said. The company will add discrete multitone line code equipment, as well as asynchronous transfer mode connections, in the future, he said.

"ATM is a very nice match for ADSL for scaling and efficiency," he said. "But some people do not have ATM networks and others just like frame relay better.

Because U.S. Robotics is one of the best marketers to end users in the modem industry, entering into the ADSL market will help drive consumer demand, said Lisa Pelgrim, an analyst with Dataquest, San Jose. U.S. Robotics has 26.2% of the revenue of the North American end user market, while the next closest competitor, Hayes, has an 8.4% share.

U.S. Robotics uses Texas Instruments' digital signal processing (DSP) chips in its modems. TI is expected to unveil a next generation DSP chipset this week with enough MIPS to be used in ADSL modems (see story on page 44).

"Whether it's the du jour or de facto standard, we're ecumenical that way. We'll do both," Westernik said.

U.S. Robotics also plans to work with partners in offering ADSL solutions. The company will release more plans and relationships later this month or in early March. "We've been trying to focus on the technology," he said. "We know there are problems with ADSL, and we also know there's a lot of braggadocio in the market."