The markets of the future will continue to be built on the need for ever faster access, the availability of new communications options enabled by higher speeds, and the desire for seamless connectivity at home, at work, and on the road. There has been a great deal of speculation about which data communications technology will dominate the mass market as we move into the 21st century. The early bets were on cable modems, which can transmit megabits of data per second, but the widespread implementation of cable has met with some problems. Most cable systems require significant infrastructure improvements before they are suitable for data transmission. Even then, as noted earlier, most are not capable of sending data in two directions, making a modem necessary for upstream communications.
Cable is also a shared resource.
As more users need to be supported, performance for individual users can suffer. Designed to address the needs of the consumer market, CDSL provides download speeds up to 1.5 Mbps, upload speeds up to 500 Kbps, and the capability to use the line simultaneously for an unrelated voice phone call. Zoom anticipates shipment of its first DSL product in late 1998 or early 1999. Zoom is actively working in the wireless network and home network areas. We believe that a number of trends in technology, particularly higher data bandwidth, will make the video area one of the highest PC growth areas in years to come.