Re: SEUL: Linux project for ISDN (fwd)

[Robert Hopcroft <hopcroft@uswest.net>]

Roger Dingledine wrote:

> Forwarded message:
> > Date: Wed, 09 Jun 1999 17:14:23 +0200
> > From: Gerhart Hlawatsch <ghl@scitel.de>
> > To: seul@seul.org
> > Subject: Linux project for ISDN
> >
> > I am at the startingpoint of manufacturing cheap ISDN PCI boards
> > with up to 4 Basic rate interfaces. They support already CAPI and
> > TAPI in the Windows world.
> >
> > If there is interest, please contact me for more details.
> >
> > Gerhart Hlawatsch
>
> Anybody think we should care? (I feel very uninformed on this topic.)
>
> --Roger

I can't speak for the rest of the world, but the local phone company
(USWest) has never given more than half-hearted support to ISDN. TCI
with cable modem has forced USWest to offer RADSL (Rate Adaptive Digital
Subscriber Line) at reasonable rates. For example, uswest.net currently
charges $49.95 per month for a 128 kbps ISDN account but only $19.95 per
month for a faster 256 kbps DSL account. In addition USWest charges more
for an IDSN line than for running DSL over an existing phone line. One
fallout from competition is that both a T1 line and the CSU/DSU unit are
half of what they were a year ago. Back to ISDN, basically it is a
technology that never really went anywhere since it was never really
supported by the phone company. It is limited to 128 kbps on a single
line whereas DSL can go much, much higher on a single line. DSL does
depend on the length of the phone line. In our case we are 6000 feet
from the Central Office and can get DSL service up to 4Mbps download and
1Mbps upload. Currently we have 256 kbps DSL service but there appears
to be no hard limits on it since I've seen it running as high as 768
kbps. A download estimated to take 3 hours at 28.8 kbps took 12 minutes.
This leads me to believe that the future for software distribution will
be downloads and not CDs since CDs are quickly obsolete.

Bob