Multimedia

[Chuck Banks <chuck -at- ASL -dot- DL -dot- NEC -dot- COM>]

ISDN

        It Still Does Nothing

        I See Dollars Now

        Is Someone Dreaming Nonsense?

ISDN has been characterized by many Telco executives as a solution
looking for a problem.  The ISDN service available in the few areas
of the US where the central office provides it will not carry
full motion - full color television.  Even with modern compression
equipment, the 64 Kbps ISDN open channels can't handle the load.

Broadband ISDN (BISDN) can handle the load if the committee in
Belgium, the CCITT, ever decides on the standards for BISDN.  For
now, the Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) portion of the standard is
the only part with complete enough standards for manufacturers to
make and deliver hardware.

The talk in the telecommunications trade press is that the early
birds like Bell Atlantic/TCI will be temporarily implementing a
non-ISDN system of interrelated existing signaling and video
technologies.  You'll get your video over existing cable TV
facilities with a telephone switching system application that
lets you signal a video server for a particular channel or movie.

Prototype systems are already being tested in labs.  Some equipment
is ready for field testing and some Telcos, like Bell Atlantic and
Pacific Bell, have applied to the FCC and the Federal Courts for
permission to try them on small areas.

I would like to hear from anyone who receives such service just
how well it works and what, if any, pricing the Local Exchange
Company (LEC) talks about.

Best Regards,

Chuck Banks
--
__        ________     ______
|\\   |  ||          //              Chuck Banks
| \\  |  ||_______  ||               Senior Technical Writer
|  \\ |  ||         ||               NEC America, Inc.
|   \\|   \\______   \\______        E-Mail:      chuck -at- asl -dot- dl -dot- nec -dot- com
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