Sprint said it plans to start testing Rockwell-based modems in the next two months, with eventual deployment in the third quarter. Several vendors are trying to persuade the FCC to waive the rule. But for Tidal Wave's Bird, the 3-Kbps difference is negligible. In fact, a slightly slower speed makes the connection a little more stable, he said. Nick Sargologos, senior marketing planning manager at Motorola Inc., Schaumburg, Ill., said though the FCC's regulation would be a limiting factor for any company's 56-Kbps modem technology, he suggested that vendors would find a way to compensate.
Ease of use is also critical.
That's where 56-Kbps modems might have an edge if they are as easy to use as their predecessors, Hobby said. Though ISDN has been around for years, users still perceive it as difficult to use, and the cost is too high for many applications, he said. Jeff Caruso contributed to this story.