British Telecommunications Plc launched its integrated voice and data digital services for small to medium sized businesses yesterday, offering fast facsimile and electronic mail, immediate call connections and videoconferencing charged at the same rate as phone calls. The services have been available to large companies in main cities that require 30 or more lines since 1988, and are a consequence of Telecom upgrading the public telephone network exchanges from analogue to digital half of all phone exchanges are now digital. The new service, ISDN-2, is for companies that require fewer than 30 lines. It is currently available over 20,000 64Kbps lines, covering main UK cities. By the end of the year, British Telecom promises that there will be 90,000 ISDN-2 available.
