Hello, Jochen. re: ISDN
Whether I view ISDN as being disadvantageous in any way would merely be a subjective statement on my part. If it satisfies one's needs and it is economical, then that's all that should matter in the end. However, in its present state, if purchased monthly as a basic rate service, I find it to be lacking in may respects.
For my own purposes, the basic rate interface (BRI) level of ISDN, which is the most common denomination of the service that is made available to consumers, it would not satisfy my needs today, given its low data rate of 128 kbps and its relative cost compared to much faster alternatives faster. That is, at least in the downstream directions they are faster, to the home, where some DSL services (and dare I say, some Cable Modem services, as well) are often rated at lower speeds.
It wasn't long ago that I might have viewed ISDN as a form of nirvana, a dramatic step up from what I was accustomed to earlier, i.e., 56 kbps "in the downstream direction, and < 38 kbps in the upstream," although being a service that is almost entirely monopolized by the incumbent carriers, it never came close to being competitive to other forms of skinny broadband services like the DSL and cable modem offerings that followed. And clearly, the higher speeds associated with Cable Modem and some variants of DSL are essential today for a growing list of applications and multimedia viewing experiences.
My intention was not in any way to denigrate ISDN, btw, at least not when viewing it in an historical perspective from the standpoint of Euro implementations juxtaposed with its history of agonizing travails and false starts in North America. I recall being a moderator on Compuserve's Communications Forum about ten years ago - which forum was truly an international venue for users and providers to talk shop.
Sometimes, when discussion centered on ISDN troubleshooting, I could almost hear over the wires chuckling in the background coming from abroad, particularly users in Germany, now that I think about it, whenever the subject of ISDN implementation difficulties arose. It got so that I prepared and made often use of scripts that would explain workarounds and solutions, which I eventually posted in the Forum Library for general viewing.
As you know, the roll-out in Europe went relatively smoothly in comparison to the many, disparate implementations and national initiatives that it took in North America to get all carriers to use a universal standard without driving end users absolutely bananas. This high degree of disjointedness did not result from any inherent flaws in the technology, itself, rather, it resulted from the mentality that follows the many not-invented-here thinking that ensued at the time, among RBOCs and IXCs, alike.
The different NA SPID (service profile identifier format codes) and the syntax that defined them for each combination of vendor-carrier implementation were so mind boggling to many for quite some time that they actually frustrated its uptake, only to be finally resolved when it was already too late to make a difference, given the availability of alternatives.
The following link, which has to do with multiple SPID interpretations amongst carrier offerings, points to an Intel page that exemplifies my point very well:
support.intel.com
In order to be relevant today for the purposes of enjoying full Internet capabilities, ISDN would need to be delivered at least in the form of bonded BRIs, resulting in some multiple of the 128 rate, i.e., 256 or 384 kbps, or 768 kbps, if not a full primary rate interface at 1.536 Mbps, or a fractional amount thereof. And of course, this would place its appeal outside the realm of end users, unless its use was necessary for symmetry and isochronous (costant bit rate) delivery for certain types of services in order to conform to a larger communities already-established standards. This is often the case for video conferencing, for example, especially for multi-user, conference room grade delivery in enterprises and for distance learning situations. To this day, I am experiencing clients ordering ISDN BRI lines by the dozens per new installation, and even extending contracts for and purchasing new TDM PBXes, proving that inertia can still be a powerful force in IT, even when all evidence points greatly improved ROI/ROA etc. returns, when newer forms of technology are implemented.
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Thank you for the references concerning FTTH and other rollouts taking place in your region. I've not heard of most of those yet. I'll give them some attention and address them comment later if I find cause to comment on anything.
FAC
frank@fttx.org |
