FCC Rule Stands in Way of Faster Modems

WASHINGTON — An obscure federal regulation governing telephone line transmission signals could slow the introduction of a new generation of high-speed computer modems that promise to take some of the waiting out of the Web-surfing experience.

Modem component suppliers such as U.S. Robotics Corp., Rockwell International Corp. and Lucent Technologies Inc. have been developing and promoting a technology they say can double the speed of downloading data and graphics from the Internet and other online services.

But after discovering that the technology would require an increase in modem signal strength, the industry earlier this month asked the Federal Communications Commission to waive a rule that limits the amount of power used to send a data transmission over a telephone line.

Until the FCC makes a decision, modem makers say few computer users will obtain the advertised 56-kilobyte-per-second connection speed.

The uncertainty came as the FCC on Thursday held daylong hearings to examine ways to give telecommunications companies incentives to provide higher-speed telephone connections and ease network congestion.

The explosion of interest in the content-rich World Wide Web pages of the Internet has fueled an insatiable appetite among business and home computer users for faster online communications. But many promising new technologies--such as cable modems, digital telephone lines or high-speed satellite links--remain in the testing phases or are extremely costly.

In the absence of any other high-speed solution, modem makers have been racing to exploit the window of opportunity with modems twice as fast as today’s 28.8 kbps standard.

Vendors remain optimistic that the FCC will grant a waiver in time to let their product plans proceed.

“I don’t think our plans are complicated by the FCC rule,” said Robert A. Rango, general manager of modem and multimedia group applications at Lucent Technologies.

“We are moving ahead to try to bring the maximum performance to our customers in the briefest time frame possible,” added Larry Kraft, product marketing manager for U.S. Robotics. “There is a tremendous amount of interest in this technology.”

However, it could take the FCC months to act on any rule change, possibly creating consumer confusion and complicating industry efforts to develop a faster modem standard that will enable all brands of new modems to communicate with each other at high speeds. Such a standard, which isn’t expected until next year anyway, is considered crucial to widespread acceptance of the new technology.

“If there is not a standard, that’s definitely going to hold people back from purchasing,” said Vern Mackall, an analyst at International Data Corp.’s New York office. “There is pent-up demand for faster modems . . . but right now you can’t be sure” one brand of high-speed 56-kbps modem “speaks the same language of another brand.”

The anxiety over acceptance of the high-speed modems has spilled over into Wall Street. Shares of U.S. Robotics dropped nearly 10% in the three days after the company told analysts on Monday that results for its current fiscal quarter will depend heavily on how widely consumers and Internet service providers adopt the company’s high-speed modem technology, known as x2.