Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ncis.llnl.gov!ncis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ucbvax!decwrl!labrea!rutgers!att!chinet!pdg
From: pdg@chinet.chi.il.us (Paul Guthrie)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.lans
Subject: Re: ISDN & the Police State
Message-ID: <7473@chinet.chi.il.us>
Date: 17 Jan 89 17:50:10 GMT
References: <1943@cpoint.UUCP> <5291@pdn.UUCP> <1979@cpoint.UUCP>
Reply-To: pdg@chinet.chi.il.us (Paul Guthrie)
Organization: The League of Crafty Hackers
Lines: 60

In article <1979@cpoint.UUCP> martillo@cpoint.UUCP (Joacim Martillo) writes:
>Extension phones are not possible with ISDN. (The phone company always
>wanted to charge you for this.)  

Absolutely incorrect.  Extension phones are possible, allowed for in
the BRI and will certainly be a part of everyones ISDN offerings.

>For no good reason, the proposed
>ISDN numbering scheme is incompatible with the current numbering scheme
>which makes it very likely that ISDN users will be have difficulty
>setting up calls which interwork to a non-ISDN users.  

Totally wrong.  ISDN is numbering plan independant.  Perhaps you
were refering to one of the numerous suggestions to numbering plan
expansion, affecting *all* phone users, not just ISDN.  Look at any
one of the current ISDN trials.  Normal numbering plans are the
standard. 

>ISDN users will
>effectively be stuck on isolated desert islands.  

Completely incorrect.  ISDN provides a mechanism to unify and
connect all networks.  Also, have you ever heard of CCS7?

>All the
>ISDN packet switches and modules which I have seen have miserable
>performance since they are designed and manufactured by people who
>really only understand voice.

ISDN banwidth may not be up to par with some other networks in the
industry, but ISDN vendors are not blind to future directions.  Have
you ever heard of broadband ISDN?  ISDN is still currently
developing, and will certainly match network speeds of other
networks, while still providing a common interface.

>Worse the European PTTs are the major
>driving force behind ISDN.  The PTTs are not comparable to AT&T
>but rather are comparable to the US Postal Service.

I hope this was tongue in cheek.  So what if the PTTs are goverment
owned (although you obviously have not been keeping up with the
current trend of European countries privatizing their PTTs).  The
PTTs have not had the huge profits of AT&T to build their networks
with.  That is why they are so much behind ISDN.  It provides a
method of expanding their telephone network and being standardized
between countries, with an eye for easy upgrading in the future. 
This will in the end cut costs.

>What increased bandwidth?  You can already lease 56kbps lines or T1
>lines?

Are you serious? Do I want to by a T-span for my house?  Be real. 
ISDN provides decent bandwidth for a low cost.  If you need much
more speed, go ahead and buy your FDD network, or whatever.  You'll
end up having to interface with ISDN anyway because thats the way
the rest of the world will be going.  The whole point is ISDN is
lower cost, and easily configurable, as centrex services are today. 
-- 
Paul Guthrie
chinet!nsacray!paul