Users slam ISDN as too expensive, lacking vital features, and largely unnecessary
One notable, if slightly predictable, feature of the All You Need To Know About Integrated Services Digital Network conference organised by IBC Technical Services Ltd in London last week (CI No 1,299), was that user delegates were overwhelmingly outnumbered by representatives of network operators and equipment manufacturers; nevertheless, users had their say last Friday morning, and the result was a bitter but potentially vital pill for the suppliers to swallow. Andrew Kaye, in charge of British Steel’s private telecommunications network, said that ISDN had been characterised by hype over substance, gloss over practicality, and with particular reference to network management of the speech facility of British Steel’s COTEN – Corporate Telecommunications Network – system, he claimed that British Telecommunications and GEC Plessey Telecommunications should be ashamed of themselves. Network management was non-existent, while what users really required was network management like that provided for data networks, with complete, on-screen network maps and the ability to isolate and examine the various nodes on the network. In a broader ISDN context, Kaye argued that the whole thing had been from the start technology-driven, with suppliers saying, here’s the solution, now find an application. The applications that have been put forward are often of dubious business value: Group IV facsimile, for example, which is facilitated by the 64Kbps transmission speed, can indeed generate faster, better copies, but what suppliers fail to realise is that few businesses will spend UKP10,000 on a Group IV facsimile machine for what are, after all, quite modest improvements. The civil service minds of ISDN licensers were also attacked for coming up with licences that were unworkable because of their complexity, and finally Kaye cast doubt on the very validity of an Integrated Services Digital Network, by stating that British Steel, as a user, had no need for an integrated voice and data service. The question of the usefulness of an integrated service was also raised by Martin Clark, Telecommunications Planning Manager for the retailing group Grand Metropolitan. Clark informed a relieved audience that he was more optimistic than Kaye about ISDN, and that he thought it had a great potential use in the retail sector; but he then went on to say that as ISDN stands, Grand Metropolitan would not take its technology on board. The reason for this was that undue emphasis had been put on its integrated facilities, when all the majority of existing users really wanted was for ISDN to provide a cheaper, better version of the services already open to them – value-added services could then be integrated if and when users required them. On the voice side, Clark foresaw that not only would ISDN necessitate a large initial investment in new technology from users, but that even after this period, network use would be much more expensive than traditional telephone rates – so where was the impetus to take ISDN on? Only if ISDN could offer considerably cheaper tariffs after installation would that initial investment prove worthwhile. As far as the value-added services that ISDN could provide were concerned, Clark said that the retail sector did have a potential use for them, in areas such as Electronic Point of Sale, but at the moment users were put of by the flat rate that suppliers were intending to charge for them. Value-added services would appear much more attractive if, instead of being integrated into a total package, users could adopt them on a step-by-step basis, remaining fully in control of cost, and paying only for what they use. If Clark for Grand Metropolitan, and British Steel’s Kaye are representative of the user community, the message for future ISDN network operators is clearly that users are largely unimpressed by the revolutionary aspects claimed for ISDN, and would be more interested if the whole perspective on ISDN was re-focussed: if ISDN was see
n firstly as a way to improve on, and reduce the cost of, traditional voice communication, and only after that as a network capable of offering cost-effective business applications determined by the user, the technology risk associated with it would not be as great, and it would stand more chance of attaining the critical mass operators say is vital to its future success. – Mark John
