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From: hartzell@sumex-aim.Stanford.EDU (George Hartzell)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: Telebit Announcement of V.32 bis for T-1600
Message-ID: <1991Jun25.193827.4724@morrow.stanford.edu>
Date: 25 Jun 91 19:38:27 GMT
References: <1991Jun23.174109.2978@shaman.com> <1991Jun24.014347.5895@netcom.COM>
	<1991Jun24.045215.12967@morrow.stanford.edu>
	<1991Jun25.042541.3928@netcom.COM>
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Organization: Yeast Genome Project, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
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In-Reply-To: gandrews@netcom.COM's message of Tue, 25 Jun 1991 04:25:41 GMT

In article <1991Jun25.042541.3928@netcom.COM> gandrews@netcom.COM
(Greg Andrews) writes: 
   [...]
   In article <1991Jun24.045215.12967@morrow.stanford.edu>
   hartzell@sumex-aim.Stanford.EDU (George Hartzell) writes: 
   >
   [...]
   I wish I could explain the reasoning behind the upgrade, but as I said 
   before, I simply don't have any more details besides those given in the
   announcement.  I don't know whether it's going to be merely a new set of 
   chips or a trade-in to a new modem.

I understand that we should keep our ears tuned for more info.  It
should be coming "soon".

   >Can someone from Telebit explain what we are getting for our $$$?

   I hope that you got a V.32/MNP5/V.42bis modem with 38400 bps support at
   a price competitive with similar brands?  

I meant the price of the upgrade.  I was (obliquely) asking whether it
would be a modem swap, a board swap, a chip swap, or???

   >Those of us who purchased T1600's new damn well that V.32bis was coming 
   >*soon* and trusted Telebit to give us an easy, reasonably priced upgrade 
   >path.

   Given the info that we actually have about the upgrade (it will exist and 
   it will cost about $250), are you saying that it's not easy or reasonably 
   priced?

No, I don't consider it easy (not if I have explain the cost) or
reasonably priced.  Imagine the following conversation with one's
[possibly imaginary] boss:

Boss: Didn't you just buy those modems for $X?
Me:   Yep.
Boss: And now you want 1/2X to upgrade them to a [not so] new
      standard [V.32bis]?
Me:   Yep.
Boss: Isn't it true that you could have purchased modems from
      *censored* that already did V.32bis for 1.2X?
Me:   Uhm, yep.
Boss: Well?
Me:   Well, I expected (based on Telebit's past track record of
      providing good support and accepting responsibility for their
      problems [e.g. free ROM replacements to cover bugs]) that their
      newly designed modem [based on their custom DSP chipset] would
      either be able to handle a standard could not possibly have
      snuck up on their engineers (they must have someone following
      standards, right?), or that they would admit their goof and not
      make me pay to undo it.  Now, maybe one should never trust a
      company to look out for anything other than their own interests,
      but that's awfully cynical.  How can they hope to build up any
      brand loyalty (why do they think I bought the T1600, even when I
      could have had a V.23bis modem for a bit more?  'cuz I like[d]
      their products and attitudes).  **Remember that I'm not talking
      about upgrading an older modem to a flashy new standard that was
      only a twinkle in the standard's committee's collective eye when
      the modem was designed, but rather one which I only recently
      bought (one of them isn't even unpacked yet).**

I think that we should try to control our hysteria on this until we
have more info (what was that about Pandora's box?).  Once we know
what's involved, whether it might be available discounted from our
vendors (after all, telebit quotes list prices for their modems, maybe
this is a list price for the upgrade [but then again, why would a
vendor discount the upgrade, they have a relatively captive market]),
whether there might be a grandfather clause (modems purchased since
company X announced *their* V.32bis modem will get a free/cheap
upgrade and/or a free Telebit frisbee as a thank you gift).

To any Telebit folk who might be watching, What's Up?

g.

--
George Hartzell                        voice: (415) 725-7421
Stanford Yeast Genome Project          fax:   (415)-723-7016
Stanford School of Medicine, Rm S337   email: hartzell@sumex-aim.Stanford.EDU
Stanford, CA 94305-5120