ISDN article with brief:
December 10, 1998
The advent of cable and ADSL modem
technologies cut into the ISDN modem
market and even replace the technology. But
analysts and vendors agree that the market
still holds considerable potential for
serving the small-business market. ISDN
modems have been considered a viable
technology since 1993, but now offer an
affordable option for small businesses that
want to add high-speed Internet access to a
LAN.
ISDN is able to take advantage of
people sharing lines to allow individuals to
access the Internet for e-mail and browsing,
and to let them put their businesses on the
Internet.
ISDN Favored In Europe
Overall, ISDN has had a much higher
adoption rate in Europe than in the United
States. In response, many modem
manufacturers try out their new technology
in Europe first, before introducing a North
American version. Xircom Inc., for example, is
currently marketing its line of ISDN products
in Europe, but plans to introduce the
products to the domestic market in the near
future.
Part of the declining market growth for ISDN
can be credited to these emerging
technologies that promise alternatives to
consumers. "In the United States, there has
been a real stall placed on the ISDN market
by the proximity of solutions that use DSL
and cable modems," Soriano says. "We
expect to see worldwide a continued stalling
in momentum of ISDN, ***if not an outright flop***
over to technologies that require less
overhead by service providers and better
performance."
As I read this article, it occurs to me that thinking ISDN is dead, may be wrong, if you look else where. For example, a German Incumbent who has more than 3.8 million subscribers on ISDN and their adding 90k new subscribers each month.
Deutsche Telecom hopes to retain its customer base by bundling the existing service with DSL. It should not only capitalize on its existing infrastructure, but tap into what this new technology should bring. They expect to offer two key selling points: two 64kbits/s channels to the home or business for simultaneous voice and data, or 128 kbits/s using both channels with the possibility to run ADSL over one of the channels, with access speeds of 2 Mbit/s or higher. This would come on top of ISDNs numerous voice features, such as call forwarding, call waiting and conferencing.
Take for instance, France Telecom. A new business service that includes a two-channel basic rate connection; three phone features, i.e. callwaiting, call forwarding, and voicemail; directory service; and a 10% on voice calls during business hours, all for about 36 bucks a month.
Now if we could only get a Protocol pair-up for vendors here in the US. So now that Level 3 with Bellcore introducing the MGCP design (media gateway control protocol), along with the other few, maybe we can do a shakey-shake and come out with something. <gg> The FMI (fixed/mobile integration) is also advancing their first, where's our unified standard for wireless?
Since the Europeans have GSM, doesn't this make FMI on our, the US's part, more difficult in terms of equipment?
Temp' |
