Clint Sharp <clint@clintsmc.demon.co.uk> wrote:[color=blue]
> In message <ftsokn$scd$1@energise.enta.net>, Gordon Henderson
> <gordon+usenet@drogon.net> writes[color=green]
> >They went by various names - eg. Livingston Portmonster, or "not
> >modems" .... They plumbed into the PSTN via E1 / ISDN30 lines and took
> >the data digitally with no intervening analogue conversion stage, other
> >than the modem at the customers end. (hence the term "not modem")[/color]
> Sort of a Mod without the EM[/color]

That was the sort of thing I was thinking of: after all, I imagine Sipgate
don't have a big bank of analogue lines plugged into thousands of ATAs.
They'll have an E3 or STM-1 feeding into a box with an Ethernet port on the
other side, and data is converted digitally. Assuming all this conversion
was in software (it probably won't be) it'd just be a case of reprogramming
to turn from a VOIP gateway to a 'modem' bank. It's probably harder work to
convert modem tones into PPP than voice samples into VOIP but the I/Os
are the same.

I could buy a box that did the same, the problem being that unlike IP it's
hard for the consumer to get access to the digital PSTN (without renting an
E1 or similar).

Looks like V.150.1 is exactly what I wanted, but I'll have to wait a few
years until it's deployed.

Theo