Alcatel MTK-20152 ADSL DynaMiTe USB Annex-A

Controller-less USB ADSL Chipset

Usage: To find other modems with the same chipset.

All drivers, downloads & info on this site are found via the modem.
Each Modem Manufacturers’ page also has external web-links, where available.

General Information

This is possibly one of Alcatel’s most popular designs; the original was turquoise, and looked like a Manta-ray (I’ve got one & it works fine with the 1.6 Windows drivers in both win98 and XP); it contains the same MTC-20154TQ-C as the DynaMiTe 5 but all ATM layering, TCP/IP processing and packet encapsulation/decapsulation is performed in software on the host computer.

Firmware--and firmware-updates--is handled by separating the Controller firmware from the physical hardware and storing it upon the host computer. This firmware is then loaded in to the modem in a 2-stage process during modem-initialisation. Essentially, the modem is ‘flashed’ on every startup. That means that ‘drivers’ for the modem can contain two updates: firmware and/or host-software.

Annex A & B (ADSL over ISDN) are both available at G.lite or G.dmt in most operating systems.

There have been 3 models, and 4 variants of this chipset in total. The good news is that drivers for later models/variants are fully backward-compatible with earlier models:

Alcatel/Thomson Platforms:

1. ADNU-A : ADSL over POTS (USB Rev0000)
2. ADNU-B : ADSL over ISDN (USB Rev0001)
3. ADNU-C : ADSL over POTS (330 Rev0200)
4. ADNU-D : ADSL over ISDN (330 Rev0400)

These translate into:

1. ST-USB-A : Turquoise Manta-Ray : driver v1.0.0
2. ST-USB-B : Turquoise Manta-Ray : driver v1.0.0
3. ST-330 : Maroon Turtle : driver v2.0.0
4. ST-330 : Platinum Turtle : driver v3.0.0

Please be advised that there are some silver-coloured 330’s that are Rev0200.

The USB bus used is a v1.1 half-duplex 12Mb-bus. Thus, although the specs for all models state “8Mbps downstream, 832kbps upstream” the USB bus cannot support the so-called maximum down-rate (lies, damned lies & computers, huh?). All devices are bus-powered and are high-drain (500mA).

The one difference that is currently known between the original SpeedTouchUSB and the SpeedTouch330 is that the former uses the USB bus only in ‘Bulk Mode’ (grabs all available bandwidth, but will relinquish some to other devices) whereas the latter adds ‘Isochronous Mode’ (on init posts the bandwidth it requires, and exclusively reserves it) and will attempt to use this latter mode. There are upsides and downsides for both. In Bulk mode other devices can grab USB-bus bandwidth and choke the speed of the ADSL connection. In Isochronous mode other high-bandwidth devices (web-cams being the most obvious) can make it impossible for the modem to operate, or vice-versa. Essentially, do not use other high-bandwidth devices on the same USB-root whilst browsing or downloading.

Extra Info

Known Problems

See General Information for USB issues.

Low speeds: a slow CPU, either inherently, due to CPU-congestion or to computer software problems, will reduce ADSL throughput (see also chipset Info). Remember also that this does depend both on line- & noise-conditions, and on the ADSL-operator service profile. The UK site does offer an “Extended Reach” driver, which may be useful for those with long lines.
Cannot use PPPoE: PPPoA has featured as a part of all drivers from the very beginning. PPPoE has been possible via included EoATM (RFC1483 Bridged) drivers but required (an external) PPPoE client. A PPPoE client was first embedded with the SpeedTouch drivers for all Windows versions from v1.4. Windows XP and MAC OS X also both contain a PPPoE client as part of the OS. All other OSs still require an additional, external PPPoE client driver.
Modem de-selected after reboot: (OSX) The Speedtouch needs to be the first listed interface. Go:

• System Preferences
• -> Network
• -> Active Network Ports

...and drag the modem into first place.
PPPoA error: “The connection attempt failed: PPP negotiations failed”: (OS 8.6 / OS 9.x) Check whether the configuration has been changed. As one example, the Mac goes back to defaults after a crash.
From the Apple menu:

• Control Panels
• -> Modem
• -> Connect Via:

...and make sure that the modem is correct.
BSOD with Norton Personal Firewall: (w2000) bugfix available through Norton LiveUpdate.
BSOD on a USB v2.0 port: (Windows STOP error: 0x0000007E with usbhub.sys) See Q327863. No fix. Do not plug/unplug a USB device to the same Hub whilst downloading.
Shutdown/restart whilst in use: (VIA MBs) Update the Hyperion drivers + USB filter from Via Arena.
PM Problems with PPPoE: (return from Suspend + external PPPoE client) No fix. Restart the client. Explanation: when the PC comes out of suspend, the PPPoE client still thinks that the PPP session is open. It is not.
Upgrade errors: (“The current driver can not be upgraded by this software package”) Most of the drivers provided on the websites are upgrade drivers: i.e. the modem needs to be already installed via an ISP’s CD (the UK site also contains install drivers + generic CD-ISO packages). Starting with the v1.4 driver it is not possible to switch the protocols used in the original install during the upgrade. The only way to do this is to uninstall the modem software, then reinstall.
Voice over ATM does not work: AAL2 processing has not been implemented and there are no plans to do so. Therefore, VoATM will not work.

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