New Rockwell Modem

The war over Internet connections shifted into high gear last week when Rockwell International Corp. said it will launch a line of computer modems that can send information over telephone lines about 20 times faster than existing models.

The modems will incorporate a device that will boost the amount of information carried by a phone line to as much as 1 million computer bits per second, compared with the current ceiling of 56,000 bits.

“Once telephone companies adopt the new technology,” Rockwell would be primed to jump into this market, officials wrote in a news release.

That is a confident statement, considering the telecommunications industry is embroiled in a debate over whether people will prefer phones, satellites, television cables or some other device to hook into the Internet at home.

But the timing of the announcement could not have been better--and Rockwell knows it. The International Telecommunications Union, the industry panel that sets standards for communications devices, had gathered in Red Bank, N.J., last week to talk about different technologies that deliver data by telephone lines.

“We’re hoping that we can influence that standard,” Rockwell’s Michael Henderson said. “Our path into the future makes sense.”

The big advantage of Rockwell’s new line of modems is that consumers will not have to change the wiring in their homes, company officials said. The drawback is that telephone companies have to change the connections on their end and absorb the costs.

To offset these costs, experts say, consumers probably would have to pay an additional fee to their local telephone provider.

In the past, other firms have studied complex versions of Rockwell’s proposed “digital subscriber line connections.” So far, the telecommunications industry has found that such systems are too expensive. Telephone companies would have to make changes that could cost them $350 to $500 a line.

Rockwell’s new modem line, which officials hope will hit the market later next year, should cost about $200.

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P.J. Huffstutter covers high technology for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7830 and at p.j.huffstutter@latimes.com