"... in San Leandro, Calif in the last half of last century, (1970's, I think), there was a trial of something that gave 5 - 7 services, like voice, computer access, fax, etc.. What was it? DSL? or something else?
Not sure which white elephant you are referring to, there were several. One that was not a white elephant but did take place in 1976 was the inauguration of digital data service, a departure from the then all analog distribution network.
Yes, DDS was to (and eventually did) support voice, data, video, etc. ISDN followed in the mid-Eighties as one of several variants of switched access similar to DDS, accessible from normal exchanges without the need for special loop treatment (except, of course, the need to meet certain distance criteria). Maybe it's ISDN that you are referring to?
Another pilot that took place during the mid to late Eighties was AT*T's DACS-based video on demand. This was designed to demonstrate how the Digital Access and Cross-connect System could be used to point video streams anywhere in the country, aided through the use of hierarchical storage systems. The point of reception was [something or other Valley, someone help me out here] Valley in California, and the launch point was in NYCity, to create the effect that this could take place over great distances. (It must be nice to have T3 bandwidth to throw away, eh? Well, "then," I mean ;-)
Now you've gotten my curiosity up too, because now I also recall another experiment that you might be referring to (which apparently, due to its demise, must have been a white elephant) but I too cannot put my finger on it. Anyone recall?
Picturephone also comes to mind, but that one was introduced over coaxial L-carrier and microwave R-carrier facilities, both analog by the way, during the Sixties.
Picturephone never did cut it because it required elaborate scheduling (almost like a commercial TV program, and was administered right next to NBC, CBS, ABC manual patch bays in locations like NY's TV Control Room called NR) and pre-installed "real broadband" (at the time) pipes to the end points. In those days "broadband" could only be achieved to subscriber end points in one of three ways:
For picturephone, coax, the preferred medium, could be used. Or specially constructed video copper pairs, or rooftop microwave radio systems (line of sight). Each of these required special installation treatment, obviously. And it cost about a zillion dollars for a one-half hour session. Consequently, it never went anywhere except in select AT&T fishbowl showcases at their own HQ building and those of their 23 operating companies. Okay, GM and NASA along with maybe Howard Hughes, too.
I recall discussing, at that time, the first set of contingencies that Bell Labs had contemplated in dealing with obscene video calls. More recently, the security guard in one of my clients' buildings advised me that he was recently accosted on the 'Net and was a victim of such. He says that some woman began undressing in front of him.
There are all kinds of obscene video occurrences taking place now on the 'Net in such venues as Paltalk.com and other IM voice and video services. My security guard friend tells me (and I've had a limo driver who phones his family in Pakistan daily confirm) that if you have a camera, and the other person has a camera, you can easily fall in love. Seriously, this stuff is happening all the time now. But I do digress. Sorry 'bout that.
And you thought that your qeustion was mundane... |
