[MLB-WIRELESS] ISDN at local call costs

[Marian Szczepkowski]

Yo

I have a great gripe here about ISDN, I used to work for Telstra in the 
model 
exchange area in ISDN. This is a great idea/service that was killed off 
by TLS
to preserve other marketing arms (austpac and DDS). Ericsson had a single 
card 
solution for the AXE exchange that was no more expensive than the analog 
line 
cards used in the AXE.

All of you should have been using ISDN from about 1994 onwards for the 
cost of a 
local call. This was the intention of the standard. The japs get ISDN for 
less than 
the cost of 2 analog lines, the germans get it cheap as well, which is 
why you see 
a lot of low end ISDN gear from germany.

Anyway to be pedantic,

> > Data over voice is a marketing thing, ISDN is a pure digital link the
> > voice service
> > is requested in the bearer capability IE of a setup message and is used
> > for charging.

> if you are using the term "marketing thing" in the same way i do, then i
> think you are incorrect there..

The charging case for ISDN calls is based on the bearer capability.
The service provided is the same, ISDN is a digital service whatever is 
requested.
The exchange infrastructure within melbourne is digital, this was 
mandated in the
 TELSTRA FMO(Future Mode of Operation 1992-3 marketing speak).
ISDN is not an end to end service it is a local interface protocol 
definition.
What you do over a B channel is up to you.
What you do over a D channel is up to the carrier.
See Q.921, Q.931, I.430 or ETS 300-102 blah blah blah etc.

> Data over voice is just that - Make a ISDN call, get charged voice 
tariffs
> by telstra, but negotiate with the terminal server for your digital
> connection as normal - Most ISP's use the same access server's for 56k 
and
> 64k connections. Not all support DoV though.

This is what I call a marketing thing, it is based on the premise that 
people will
pay more for the same service packaged in a different form. Understand 
that the network
usage between an ISDN (data or voice) and a PSTN call through a digital 
exchange is the same. 
The only reason for the price differential is Telstra makes an assumption 
about the use 
of the line, and that is that you are using it for a business purposes. 
The high 
charge for data gets even more murky as Telstra have a range of other 
services that provide 
digital links between customer sites. These services are generally 
expensive and combersome.

DOV prior to deregulation was prohibited by telstra, which used to charge 
timed 
calls for voice as well but at a different rate.

The ACA or ACCC found that there was no LAW forbidding the use of DOV 
hence its new
incarnation. The US used this mode first which is why the TA's from the 
US generally 
have this as a standard feature.

> Home Highway ISDN is pretty cheap (about the same price as getting a
> seocnd line installed, IIRC), and even if you dont want to go to the
> hassle of using an ISDN card, or DoV, they tend to work better than a
> plain old phone line for modems (my observations only there)

They work better because there is what is called an NT1 (Network 
Termination point 1) 
inside the box on the wall. The service is digital to that box where it 
goes through 
the codec (U law codec)  and is converted into audio. This is why your 
modem works
so good. Great for 56k they actually work.

A note here is that a semi permanent connection used to be in the region 
of $1200/year for an 
64k intra city link. I suspect this has changed, but if used as a shared 
resouce amongst a group
this is quite cheap. There are no data charges over this, it is just a 
64k hole.


Regards
Marian Szczepkowski



> James

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