The main European source of demand for Integrated Services Digital Network connections in the year 2000 could be home workers linked to their office local area network via an Integrated Services Digital connection. So finds a study conducted for the European Commission by a consortium of London-based Ovum Ltd, Fischer & Lorenz A/S in Copenhagen and Pisa-based Finsiel SpA. The study investigated the use of local network interconnect and remote local network access among 150 companies in Europe. According to the report, the key uses for Integrated Services Digital Network in local network interconnection are back-up to digital leased circuits, top-up to direct circuits for bandwidth on demand and as main link for low-volume applications. However, home-working will be a key driver to the use of Integrated Services Digital Network basic rate accesses, finds the survey, with up to one in a 100 of Europe’s working population likely to be on line to their office local area network via an Integrated Services Digital Network link by the year 2000. For the high-speed digital lines to really become established and widely used, the drum needs to be banged harder, the compilers of the study suggest. Some 12m small and medium-sized companies in the European Community alone are still largely unaware of Integrated Services Digital Network’s benefits for data communications and need much more information to take advantage of it. The privately-commissioned report forms part of an European Commission programme to educate and proselytise Integrated Services Digital Network to these companies.
