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From: casey@gauss.llnl.gov (Casey Leedom)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: Telebit T1600 insides & insights...
Message-ID: <89706@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV>
Date: 17 Jan 91 23:40:02 GMT
References: <37576@cup.portal.com> <89600@lll-winken.LLNL.GOV> <1991Jan17.205437.29684@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
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| From: kadie@cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie)
| 
| >From: casey@gauss.llnl.gov (Casey Leedom)
| >
| >  I've talked to Telebit about V.32bis and PEP upgrades to the T1600 and
| >have been told that they are coming within six months.  No figure on how
| >much it would cost or if they would charge more for a T1600 with V.32bis
| >and/or PEP.
| 
| I wonder if they could add fax to the modem too?

  Actually I'm very worried about this.  What I've heard is that there'll
be a new modem designated as the T3000 which will actually just be the
same hardware as the T1600 but with support in the PROM for V.32bis and
PEP.  I can see them doing something similar with FAX support.

  I'm kind of torn on this issue.  On the one hand I think that
supporting more than one PROM set is silly, detracts from Telebit's
resources and therefore increases Telebit's overhead costs and my costs
for the modem.  On the other hand, I couldn't give a rat's ass about FAX
support and don't want my price for the modems to increase to cover the
cost of developing FAX support.

  Oh well, I sure wish we could get past guessing what the upgrade
options are going to be and when they're going to be available.  I'm
still upset that the best Telebit can promise for V.32bis support is
``within six months.'' V.32bis has been in DRAFT standard for more than
six months.  Very little changes between DRAFT standards and final
approved standards.  Is Telebit really waiting for the final vote to go
down (the voting period ends at the end of January) before starting on
their implementation of V.32bis???  If they're going to get buried by
companies like USR which are already announcing V.32bis products.

  Don't get me wrong, I'm not truly unhappy with Telebit yet, but I sure
wish I had a better feeling about them right now.  We decided on telebits
because of their reputation for reliable modems and always offering an
upgrade path when they brought out new modems.  But that doesn't help
much if they don't bring out new modems incorporating the latest
international standards till everyone else has had product out for six
months or a year ...

Casey

P.S.  On the positive side, the T1600 evaluation is going great.  It's
    a nice modem (establishes and holds the connections I care about),
    is pretty well documented (but what values is one supposed to put
    in S59????) and the command set is pretty well thought out.