Jim W Lai <jwtlai@watcgl.waterloo.edu> (05/03/91)
Looking through the ads of a Japanese computer magazine, I was puzzled by the high cost of modems compared with North America. No US brands were for sale. Can anyone explain the nature of this situation? I also noticed the Japanese modem brands were not sold in the US either.
David Gast <gast@cs.ucla.edu> (05/08/91)
> Looking through the ads of a Japanese computer magazine, I was puzzled > by the high cost of modems compared with North America. No US brands > were for sale. Can anyone explain the nature of this situation? I know that U.S. made modems like telebits work in Japan because I have used them in Japan. You really should not decide what is available and/or what works based on who is advertizing in a particular magazine. It is also possible that some U.S. companies have sold the rights to market their modems in Japan to another compnay or that there are joint venture projects such as Fuji-Xerox that do not include the American name. Finally, you do not mention if you read Japanese, but if you don't it is possible that the Japanese in the ads would have explained the situation. At any rate, one can buy U.S. modems in Japan.
Jim W Lai <jwtlai@watcgl.waterloo.edu> (05/10/91)
I posted about this recently and received a few pieces of email in response. I based my judgment of the lack of availability of US modems on the ads of mail order companies in some Japanese computer magazines and the persual of a few stores on a recent visit. The two brands of modem that seemed to be most popular on the store shelves for 2400 baud were Omrom and Aiwa. Apparently US modems can be bought in Japan and vice versa. The reason I was at a loss to explain the situation is because I noted the ridiculously high cost of 1200 baud modems in Japan. I fail to find the protectionism argument satisfactory since even a 100% tariff would not pose a barrier to the sale of US 1200 baud modems. Does anyone know if Japan has strict RFI emissions standards or if there are any joint ventures with US modem manufacturers? As an aside, I was told there that the phone lines in Japan were clean enough to handle 9600 baud. However, I found their international long distance system (controlled through another company?) to be somewhat less reliable. Due to noise, 2400 baud would probably be the best that could be relied on.