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What is V.90?


What Is V.90?

ITU Standard

V.90 is the official designator for the ITU draft recommendation for 56K modems. V.90 is not the official standard yet and will not be the 56K modem standard until it is approved by the ITU members in September '98. A lot of Lucent's K56flex technology is incorporated into V.90, since the fundamental techniques that enable V.90 to work are similar to K56flex (K56flex Whitepaper). Lucent was one of the leading contributors to the V.90 specification.

Interoperability

V.90 will finally allow you to connect to any ISP that has V.90 interoperable modems. Interoperability is a key factor that enables different modem brands to connect. Lucent and 3Com/USR recently announced that both companies have been working together to ensure that both companies' V.90 products would be interoperable (Lucent & 3Com press release). Lucent based V.90 modems will continue to support K56flex, so if your ISP has not upgraded yet, you can still get a high-speed Internet connection. Not all modems are capable of supporting both K56flex and V.90. Please check the modem before you buy to make certain that it can support both K56flex & V.90 to allow you to connect to the ISP of your choice (Lucent Based V.90 Modem Manufacturers). Just look for the Lucent Technologies logo to make certain.

Deployment & Transition

V.90 is a software upgrade for most consumer client modems as well as the ISP's head-end equipment so the V.90 upgrade and deployment for K56flex users should happen quickly. The majority of client modem manufactures and head-end Internet equipment manufacturers will make the V.90 software upgrade available to their customers as soon as it is available. As the ISPs upgrade their equipment to V.90, K56flex will play an important role during this transition. K56flex which is currently deployed by many ISPs throughout the world, will allow Internet users to access the web at the fastest possible rate even after the V.90 standard is finalized.

V.90 Modem Upgrades

All Lucent based K56flex client modems and Internet head-end equipment is software upgradable. You can visit Upgrade Central to check to see when your modem manufacturer has the V.90 software upgrade for your modem. Even if you do not upgrade to V.90, most ISPs will continue to support K56flex, so you can still enjoy surfing the web at the highest rates possible.




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