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From: joel%TECHUNIX.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu (Yossi (Joel))
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: TDD Technology (was Re: TDD Cost and Technology Issues)
Message-ID: <8526@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 1 Jun 90 05:25:12 GMT
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Reply-To: "Yossi (Joel" <joel%TECHUNIX.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu>
Organization: Technion, Israel Inst. Tech., Haifa Israel
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 404, Message 4 of 8


In article <8413@accuvax.nwu.edu> mcb@presto.ig.com (Michael C. Berch)
writes:
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 396, Message 12 of 12

>The obvious next question is, is there any hope in sight for changing
>the TDD standard to something more, uh, *modern* than 45.5 or 48 baud
                                                       ^^^^^^^^^^ I
think I may have inadvertantly started the 48 baud rumor with a typo.
I beleive the baud rate is 45ish.

>[...], but are deaf people going
>to be stuck with 45.5 baud forever?  I can't imagine that given
>today's miniaturization of components and automated manufacturing
>techniques, a device can't be built that will communicate at least 2
>orders of magnitude faster at an order of magnitude less cost than
>TDDs of the 1970s...

The logical thing to do would be to use standard 300 baud ASCII-type
modems.  (Most humans can't type 300 baud anyway).  They're readily
available, and very cheap.  But the problem is that the existing TDD's
are the existing TDD's, and no one wants to be the first on the block
to get the new, non-backwards comptable, technology.  Would you buy a
new phone that offered CD quality sound (suppose!), or, even,
Star-Trek like universal language translation, if it meant that the
only people you could call were people like yourself who had invested
in the new technology?  And that you could no longer call your
neighbor and ask for a cup of sugar?  I wouldn't.  Or, at least, I'd
buy both, but if financial constraints forced a decision, I'd stick
with what I had.


Joel
(joel@techunix.technion.ac.il -or- joel@techunix.BITNET)


[Moderator's Note: Curtis Reid, the reader who started this entire
thread several issues ago, has crafted a comprehensive reply to
several issues raised. It will be in a Digest on Saturday.   PT]