SuperLine: Three Phone Lines in One
Telephone companies will soon sell a modem-size box that turns a single phone line into three
while sharply improving 56-kbps modem performance. Called SuperLine, the device also provides
an ethernet port for an Internet connection running at up to 500 kbps. Lucent Technologies
and a subsidiary, AG Communication Systems, will market the SuperLine Integrated Access
System to telephone companies, which will offer it this spring or summer after installing the
necessary AG equipment in their offices, say sources at both companies.
The system requires users to plug the remote Integrated Access Device, developed by a third
company, Paradyne, into an existing RJ-11 phone jack. An included AC adapter powers the
additional lines. Extra devices, such as fax machines and modems, will usually require adding
a standard phone cable to an RJ-11 jack in the IAD. V.90-compliant 56-kbps modems will run
near their advertised speed when plugged into SuperLine, the vendors say. That's a jump from
today's typical throughput of 33 kbps or less, to as much as 53.6 kbps.
You'll Get It in Your Lifetime
Pricing will be up to phone companies, which will likely charge little more than a standard
monthly fee of roughly $9 to $16 per line, according to vendors and analysts. Some may
eventually sell the Paradyne IAD in retail stores. SuperLine will be available nationwide,
thanks to the ubiquity of twisted-pair copper phone lines and the widespread use of Lucent
and AG equipment by phone companies. "SuperLine is kind of like the bionic phone line," says
Mark Emery, vice president and general manager at AG. "There's an instant improvement to
service to the end user, and they don't have to do anything."
Net Access Not Quite Solved
Analysts generally raved about SuperLine's unique combination of cost savings for phone
companies, ease of use, and improved data performance for customers. The only real drawback:
minimal support for the ethernet port. "They don't have all the network protocols in place at
the central site in order to support large-scale data services from the get-go," says John
Freeman, principal analyst at Current Analysis in Sterling, ***ia.
So-called pair gain products like SuperLine are not new in the telecommunications industry,
which looks for ways to minimize "truck rolls" required to string the physical phone line to
residences--at a cost of up to $1000. (AG says the SuperLine system will cost telcos as
little as $600 per line.) What makes SuperLine stand out, say the analysts, are its ethernet
connection and its savvy bundling of features, which emphasizes the voice-line savings rather
than the broadband Web connections. "It solves a problem rather than looking for demand,"
Freeman says
