Netcomm Hauls Its Future Up On Cable
The Age
Tuesday February 27, 1996
Australia's principal modem maker is charging ahead into the cable era. Mike van Niekerk reports.
FAST cable modems by the end of the year, an export-oriented agreement with a US modem company and a new analog modem offering simultaneous voice and data communication were among the announcements at a NetComm briefing on Friday.
The Australian modem maker claimed a 60 per cent domination of the modem market in January.
Despite the continued drag on output caused by the short supply of modem chipsets from the key supplier, the United States company Rockwell, the company was still selling analog modems like crazy.
Responding to a question on whether NetComm would ditch the analog market for the glistening lure of digital cable modems, NetComm managing director Chris Howells said: ``We've found our new oasis, we've got our bags packed and the camel train is ready, but we're not leaving yet because the well is not yet dry.
``We will drive into ISDN and cable modems as hard and as fast as we can but we're not going to abandon the analogue market yet," Howells said.
Why indeed, when NetComm's core modem business jumped 54 per cent in the six months to the end of December.
In fact, the company has launched a new top-end product, the SmartModem 288D, which enables user to speak and transfer data over the same telephone line.
It lets users share files during a conversation - remote support staff can even take control of your computer before your eyes while diagnosing a problem. It assists multi-player games and is tailor-made for videoconferencing tools like CUSeeMe.
But the cable modem market beckons. Howells said NetComm, working with US company ADC Telecommunications, would have a cable modem with a 30 megabit per second downstream channel ready in June.
The upstream channel for this first release will be 64 to 512 kilobits per second, making it pretty functional for interactive TV, video on demand, super high-speed Internet, multiplayer games and electronic magazines.
Later in the year, a second release will have an 8 megabits per second upstream channel, using ADC's HomeWorx hybrid fibre coaxial system.
HomeWorx is an access platform that has been chosen by Optus Vision, Ameritech, Southern New England Telephone and Cable Bahamas.
``Cable is costing us money - it's purely a research and development play," Howells admitted: NetComm reported a $268, 000 loss in the year to the end of December on it cable modem venture. But it has potentially ``very high long-term rewards".
NetComm also announced it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Boca Research, a giant US modem maker, which is likely to rebadge NetComm modems in the US and in the growing Asian market.
NetComm has pulled back from direct exports after a poor experience.
Connect.com.au, the Internet Service Provider jointly owned by NetComm and AAP Telecommunications, grew 300 per cent, but took a loss of $187,000.
Nevertheless, Howells said all the part of NetComms business worked well together. ``I don't think there's another company in Australia today so well positioned to play a pivotal role in the information superhighway," he said.
© 1996 The Age
Share This