[ILUG] Re: more from ILUG on Genesis

[Fergal Daly]

At 14:56 29/02/00, Justin Mason wrote:

>"Stuart Harper" said:
> > On 28 Feb 00, at 13:00, Justin Mason wrote:
>
> > > WTF is this magic technology I wonder?
> > > It does sound very fishy IMHO,
> >
> > Nothing magical about it, the VDSL standard allows for up to 55
> > mbs over a normal phone line, although it's incorrect to say it
> > works over POTS. The whole idea behind DSL technologies is to
> > give you very fast speeds over the phone line (it was originally
> > developed as a means for telephone companies to offer interactive
> > TV services).

.....

>Also the way it's discussed in the articles seems to indicate that some
>part of the system is patented in the US and is their own intellectual
>property -- that's the mysterious "magic" technology...

I thought the the bit about the patent was amusing. A patent has satisfy 
certain criteria, one of which is that it's not just something that anyone 
with sufficient knowledge in the area would come up with. They boast in one 
of those articles[1] that since they were granted the patent "more than 420 
companies have hit on the same technology in the past six months only to 
discover it is already registered".

I think I'd be keeping that quiet if I was them!

Fergal

[1] http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/finance/1999/0924/fin400.htm