Motorola seeks to boost DSL acceptance

(Telephony) Motorola figures DSL will be a lot more palatable if the modem becomes part of the PC. And it gets even more palatable for computer makers if the modem is on the computer’s processor rather than as a separate card inside the housing.

“We’ve leveraged the increases in speed in the CPUs [central processing units] that are in PCs,” said Mike Tramontano, a marketing director in Motorola’s Software Products Division [SPD]. “With the leftover CPU cycle, we can actually deliver communications functionality and system software rather than using expensive, dedicated DSP [digital signal processor] chips and the associated RAM hardware.”

Tramontano said that Motorola has had success with dial-up modems and will have a 1.5-megabit ADSL modem ready for the consumer marketplace by the end of the year.

“The product is just finishing up development now,” he continued. “We believe it actually helps solve some of the problems that the ADSL market is experiencing today in that it’s extremely reduced cost.”

Lower costs--as much as 40% less than standard built-in modems--will encourage computer OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] to bundle the ADSL modem into new PCs “and create a larger installed base than what the industry would normally have seen and really encourage more rapid deployment of broadband,” Tramontano said.

While Motorola is a top supplier in the cable modem space, the initial product will be for DSL, Tramontano emphasized. The end product will be transparent to the end user.

“We expect as we start to bring this product to market toward the end of the year we’ll be the glue between the PC OEMs and the telephone companies, helping them to roll out programs where the end user is first qualified to get the PC with the modem inside of it,” he said.

Tramontano doesn’t plan to stop with ADSL modems.

We’re also taking a look at doing voice over DSL,” he said. “From a technology standpoint, it’s very possible.”

The bugaboo for Motorola was “wondering how many end users would be interested in one or two voice ports off their PC versus a dedicated piece of network gear like an external box sitting on their TV or on their desk somewhere,” Tramontano said.

But that’s still in the future, Tramontano said. The current emphasis is on moving the DSL business from external set-top boxes to internal software that rides on the computer’s CPU.

“The only thing in question here is the time frame, the ramp of how and when that will occur,” he said. “We think our particular solution will help drive that integration faster than what the industry would have seen, although we still think that’s a good 12 to 24 months out.”