Now that a cease fire in the acrimonious 56K modem battle of 1997 has been called, the warriors – Rockwell Semiconductor Systems and 3Com (US Robotics) – are both claiming victory, even though both companies lost considerable revenues as a result. At a recent briefing, Moiz Beguwala, general manager of the Personal Computing Division of Rockwell, displayed a slide with a stealth bomber with the K56flex logo (Rockwell’s version of 56K) ripping through the US Robotics X2 logo and with the words K56flex victorious. Beguwala boasted: We won the modem battle of 1997. Others are more skeptical. They lost their ass, contends analyst Will Strauss, of Forward Concepts, who says the only winner in the battle is the consumer, who has seen prices plummet. Meanwhile 3Com executives have been telling journalists how Rockwell tried to kill the new V.90 standard that was finally agreed in January. And 3Com executives have been pointing out technical deficiencies in the Rockwell upgrades. In reality, both companies have had technical problems. Rockwell’s upgraded modems do not allow connection with service providers still using 3Com’s X2 modems, while 3Com had to recall its first shipments because of bugs.

Computer Business Review.