UN Backs Faster Internet Standard.

Global agreement on a new telephone standard will vastly speed up links from homes to the Internet, the United Nations telecommunications agency said Monday. U.S. firms are already offering the new standard, which enables speeds at least 30 times faster than the current top-of-the-line modems used by personal computers over ordinary copper telephone lines. Many other countries are introducing systems based on the standard to provide affordable access to the Internet, multimedia services as well as long-distance schools, the International Telecommunications Union said. European companies are poised to enter the field, said Andrew Nunn of Britain, chairman of a key panel that devised the standard for the ITU, announced Monday. Systems based on these standards, which are effective immediately, will complete "the last mile in high-speed subscriber-to-subscriber data communications," said an ITU statement.The new standard is for a system known as ASDL, or Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. It can send data in one direction at up to 7 million bits per second. Even at the lower end of its speed range, around 1 million bits per second, the system is much faster than the 56,000 bits possible with current standard modems. It also far eclipses speeds possible with ISDN digital lines. The new service will require new equipment at the personal computer end, as well at the Internet service provider and telephone company, but it will still be able to use the old wiring.