"Isdn was the phone company's baby that was 64k thru two of the unused lines and they wanted 200/month"
I don't know when you think it cost 200/month. What's amazing is that it was offered in 1984 when the phone company was first broken up -- so who knows how they would have deployed it, and at what cost. My point is -- it shows that your claim that the best the phone company invented was the princess phone is funny, but dead wrong.
SECONDLY, ISDN was a lot better and cheaper than you imply. I did a quick search of dejanews and found the quote below -- and that was 1992!!!!! 3 years before the WWW became practical, and at time when the hot modem speed was still 9600.
- Charles
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Search Result 1
From: Rob Warnock (rpw3@rigden.wpd.sgi.com)
Subject: PacBell ISDN (was: Re: What Telcos REALLY Want)
View: Complete Thread (2 articles)
Original Format
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Date: 1992-05-09 23:34:48 PST
<snip>
> Pac*Bell has not the slightest interest in offering ISDN to the masses ...
> So what is Pac*Bell doing to move ISDN along? Probably nothing.
> Pac*Bell has ABSOLUTELY NO PLANS at this time to offer basic rate ISDN
> to ANYONE, business or residence ...
John, this is simply not true. I can get PacBell ISDN service at home
*today*, for $45.15/month for two lines -- one analog, one digital
2B+D, or "three dialtones for $15/mo/dialtone" -- or $58.97/month for
two ISDN lines (four dialtones for $15/mo/dialtone). True, the
tarriffs are a bit weird, requiring you to have Centrex service, with
a whopping $585 installation charge -- of which $300 is "establishment
of Centrex service". But the intra-LATA call rates are exactly the
same as voice call rates. [Inter-LATA depends on one's ISDN IEC
carrier. Some are the same as voice; some are a *lot* higher.]
And ISDN Basic Rate service is only available within 18,000 wire-feet
of an ISDN-provisioned CO, which at the rate they're going I will
absolutely agree with you is nowhere near universal access ... yet.
But PacBell *is* selling and installing ISDN today, in some
non-trivial quantity. |
