Five years ago: Pace denies push from USR

First published 17 January, 1997

"We launch when we are confident the product is stable and well supported," said Steve Lister, managing director of Pace. "US Robotics hasn't pushed us prematurely, although speaking for Rockwell and Lucent, from a UK perspective, they would rather [K56Plus] was launched mid-year."

Pace said it had the support of companies including 3Com, Cisco and Digital. "We've contacted every UK ISP," said Lister. "I think they will fall into two camps - those supporting USR and those supporting the rest. From the level of response from the ISPs, the US Robotics announcement last November was premature." He added it was too early to say if K56Plus and x2 will merge later.

Separately, Lister said sales of the faster devices will be "modest": "I don't believe it's the case that everyone wants it. A small minority will decide their requirements are such that they need to upgrade to a higher bandwidth."