Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!bionet!hayes.ims.alaska.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: adams@ucunix.san.uc.edu (James Warner Adams)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: A Potential Downside to ISDN
Message-ID: <14339@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 5 Nov 90 00:21:21 GMT
Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu
Organization: University of Cincinnati
Lines: 24
Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 791, Message 2 of 8


I have seen several postings related to ISDN.  Most have praised the
potential for simultaneous voice/data/fax, etc.  I agree, but there
seems to me to be a potential downside as well:

First, this is going to obsolete a lot of expensive equipment.  On the
other hand, this is something that society in general is going to have
to come to grips with (e.g., HDTV, etc.).

My main concern is that the implementation of ISDN is going to give
the telephone carriers a golden opportunity to clamp down on the
low-to-mid speed data comm market that more-or-less escaped control in
the wake of the Carterfone decision.  Given the indifferent-to-hostile
attitude of the BOCs toward home BBS's and USENET sites, one has to
wonder what will happen when a new technology is installed.  Given the
almost unlimited class-of-service control available under a purely
digital system, how will data comm access/billing be handled?

If this is a valid concern, perhaps it's time to start a movement to
raise the awareness of this issue among legislators and other officials.


       Jim Adams              Department of Physiology and Biophysics
adams@ucunix.san.uc.edu     University of Cincinnati College of Medicine