Austin, Texas -- Motorola Inc. last week joined a new
consortium of companies hotly pursuing ADSL (asymmetrical digital subscriber line)
advances for high-speed data.
The Universal ADSL Work Group roster is weighty, including
Compaq Computer Corp., Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp., Ameritech Corp., Bell Atlantic Corp.,
GTE Corp. BellSouth Inc., SBC Communications Inc., Sprint Corp. and U S West Inc.
Its self-proclaimed mission is to work through
international standards bodies to develop a 'simplified' version of ADSL
technology, called 'Universal ADSL.'
The UAWG has already spawned a few new DSL buzzwords,
including 'ADSL Lite' and 'Splitterless ADSL.' The latter refers to an
ADSL system without a low-pass filter (which helps to prevent cross-channel interference
between voice and data traffic running on the same copper wire.)
ADSL Lite was described by Motorola as a subrated ADSL
system, with data rates capped at 1.5 megabits per second downstream.
