ADSL Standards Nearing           Printing?
                           Wired News Report                Use this version.

                           12:15pm  7.Aug.98.PDT
                           A technology promising to         TECHNOLOGY
                           link consumers to the             Today's Headlines
                           Internet at much faster            []
                           speeds is making progress         SEC Reels In
                           toward standardization.           Space Hype

                           Ken Krechmer, a                   No More $300
                           communications consultant         Screwdrivers?
                           and a US delegate to the
                           worldwide standards body,         Amiga's Roman
                           the International                 Amigos
                           Telecommunication Union,
                           reported that parties             ADSL Standards
                           working on the asymmetric         Nearing
                           digital subscriber line
                           technology (ADSL) standard        Email Links Carry
                           have reached important            Bad Code
                           agreements in recent ITU
                           meetings.                         Microsoft Demos
                                                             'Bug'
                           Approval is nearing, he
                           reported, which will allow        Back Orifice Goes
                           the proliferation and             Forth
                           compatibility of products
                           and services that use ADSL.
                           The phoneline-based
                           technology has been in a
                           heated race with cable
                           modems to fulfill the need
                           for faster consumer Net
                           access.

                           "The ITU Rapporteur meeting
                           in Antwerp, Belgium was
                           quite successful," Krechmer
                           posted in an email bulletin
                           from Belgium. "Completion of
                           all six standards necessary
                           to use ADSL worldwide appear
                           to be on track for
                           completion October 23,
                           1998."

                           Consumer-oriented ADSL has
                           been the focus of a PC and
                           phone industry push to speed
                           deployment of a consumer
                           version of ADSL. The
                           five-star membership of this
                           Universal ADSL Working Group
                           (no relation to the ITU)
                           includes Microsoft, Intel,
                           Rockwell, Lucent, and Compaq
                           from the PC world, and all
                           of the US regional Bell
                           operating companies. The
                           latter group of phone
                           companies will be
                           responsible for making the
                           service available to their
                           current customers.

                           "It now appears very likely
                           that this committee will
                           technically complete the six
                           standards necessary to
                           support compatible worldwide
                           operation of ADSL," Krechmer
                           wrote in his report.

                           Key technical issues, he
                           said, were resoved in this
                           week's meetings, amid an
                           "excellent spirit of
                           compromise." Work to
                           complete the text of a draft
                           recommendation is
                           proceeding. Only a few
                           technical issues remain to
                           be resolved, he said.

                           Of the various standards
                           being hammered out at the
                           ITU, the proposed "G.lite"
                           standard would fulfill the
                           requirements of the standard
                           called for by the Universal
                           ADSL Working Group.

                           Comprised of delegates from
                           nine countries, ITU Study
                           Group 15 has been working to
                           form the basis of the "line
                           code" for G.lite, the
                           proposed standard for a
                           lower-speed,
                           consumer-oriented DSL
                           technology.

                           Aimed at consumers, G.lite
                           has a lower
                           maximum-data-rate version of
                           the proposed standard for
                           full-speed ADSL (called
                           G.dmt). The data rate of
                           G.lite is 1.5 Mbps incoming
                           (for something like a Web
                           page request) and 512 Kbps
                           outgoing (for sending an
                           email message).

                           The "lite" standard is
                           designed to be attractive to
                           the local telephone
                           companies central to the
                           deployment of DSL equipment,
                           because it doesn't require
                           the installation of a signal
                           "splitter" at the consumer's
                           home. In addition to the
                           consumer's own ADSL modem,
                           DSL equipment need only be
                           installed at a phone
                           company's central switching
                           office.

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