CommWorks is offering rebates to ISPs that trade in outdated equipment for new V.92 gear and other products. But hurry, this deal dies February 22, 2002.

by ISP-Planet Staff [February 14, 2002]

CommWorks, a wholly owned subsidiary of 3Com, sells backend equipment to telcos and Internet service providers. Although the company counts 16 of the world's largest telecom companies as customers—representing 71 percent of the world's public phone service by revenue—the company is still reaching out to small- and medium-sized businesses looking to deploy v.92 support.

In March 2001, CommWorks initiated its trade-up program to promote sales of its slow-moving V.92 line up. The program offers ISPs in the U.S. and Canada a per-port rebate for customers trading up older equipment when they also deploy CommWorks' Total Control 1000, a hardware and software combo that enhances network management and aids in the delivery of value-added services like Voice over IP (VoIP) and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).

The deal, which offers about $50 per port—exact pricing depending on the product traded in—ends on February next week. A complete list of terms and conditions are available on the CommWorks corporate site. Products that can be purchased under the program range from $12,000 to $38,900.

Please, hold
Based on conversations that have taken place on several of the ISP-Lists, some ISP operators are concerned about upgrading to V.92 because of its "modem on hold" feature, which allows a subscriber to receive a phone call while connected to the Internet through a dialup connection—without losing dial tone. ISPs were worried that subscribers would remain on hold without actually using their dialup connection, tying up ISP modem banks, resulting in busy signals for other customers.

In a brief conversation, Michele Kabele, Senior Manager of CommWorks Global Customer Marketing, assured us that it's issues like modem-on-hold that make it necessary to have a good network management system.

"The CommWorks Common Element Manager, which is also being announced, allows a service provider of any size to time out if a user goes on hold. With CEM, the ISP can preset a time limit, so, for example, if the PoP is a small, remote one with 48 ports and the ISP cannot afford to have any one port tied up, the ISP can time out the customer after five minutes," Kabele explained.

Perks and perquisites
The program comes with additional business initiatives aimed at serving CommWorks' smaller customers. CommWorks has developed marketing materials designed to help small ISPs sell the benefits of V.92 service to consumers.

Kabele said that ISP service has been its core competency for a number of years.

"Some vendors have left the small service provider market to focus on the large carriers, but we've always been here and we continue to serve this market," Kabele said. "For example, there is a dedicated sales team in the small- and mid-size segment that makes sure that these companies get the best options, and that they do not fight for time with large telco customers."

Kabele also emphasized a key benefit of V.92 technology that she feels is often overlooked.

"V.92's Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) features significantly enhance upstream performance," Kabele said. "Combined with CommWorks' distributed architecture that uses multiple processors in an Remote Access Server (RAS) box [as opposed to other versions that rely on a single processor], ISPs will be able to deliver equal performance in upstream and downstream."

Another frequently overlooked feature of V.92 is its use of V.44 compression. The file compression, initially developed for satellite Internet services, is designed to speed up file transfers, both during uploads and downloads.

The enhanced performance of a dialup connection made possible by V.92 would be important to any SOHO customer who relies on dialup, and also to dialup hobbyists of any sort, from families publishing photo albums online to individuals running special interest or community websites from their home.

Kabele concluded, "the reaction so far has been very positive. We're seeing more and more people doing V.92, and more and more are calling for information. ISPs are taking advantage of our co-marketing tools to educate consumers about the value that V.92 brings to them."

—End