Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!rutgers!mailrus!ames!killer!elg From: elg@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Eric Green) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems Subject: Re: Where is modem progress? Message-ID: <8196@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> Date: 26 May 89 02:46:57 GMT References: <78700004@p.cs.uiuc.edu> Organization: The Unix(R) Connection, Dallas, Texas Lines: 40 in article <78700004@p.cs.uiuc.edu>, gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu says: > 1.5 years ago cheapo external 2400-baud modems were selling for > $180-$220. Now the cheapest 2400-baud modems are selling for about > $130. > > My question is, when will faster modems replace the 2400-baud > standard? It's been a couple of YEARS and the progress does not seem In 1983, when I first got into telecommunications, a Hayes 1200 Smartmodem costed over $500, and the best deal around for a 1200 baud modem was around $350. The standard, of course, was still 300 baud. I bought my first 300 baud modem for $120. I have a boxfull of'em in the closet... I occasionally pull one out to use as a junction box when I want to add a new section to my phone cordage. In 1985, 1200 baud modems dipped below $200 for the first time, and 2400 baud modems got down to around $400-$500. People still had a hard time believing that it was possible to go 2400 baud over the phone lines, and were often saying, "Hmph, it already goes fast enough, why do I want to upgrade to a more expensive modem?" 2400 baud modems got cheap real quick. The Taiwan clone manufacturers got ahold of them, apparently, and did their usual. But 9600 isn't so easy. The problem is the #$%#$% analog-based phone system we have here in the U.S., which has extremely limited bandwidth. As a result, your beautiful digital data is analogized, spit onto the phone line where it is then re-digitized and spit over fiber optics at 64kbaud or so, then re-analogized at the other end into a nice slow analog signal. I believe the signal bandwidth is 7khz. A telephone expert could be more exact. In any event, the whole process is a hack and a kludge, and as you press the limits, it naturally becomes more and more difficult to make progress. It's much like the top end microprocessors... even now, years later, you can't get 80286 processors for the $5 apiece that you can get 8086 processors. -- Eric Lee Green P.O. Box 92191, Lafayette, LA 70509 ..!{ames,decwrl,mit-eddie,osu-cis}!killer!elg (318)989-9849 bcase: "I have seen or heard "designer of the 68000" attached to so many names that I can only guess that the 68000 was produced by Cecil B. DeMile."