Newbridge Networks Inc, Ottawa, Ontario is offering a free basic rate ISDN connection to UK customers buying a Newbridge ISDN terminal adaptor before April 1993. The company says it is making the offer to stimulate the ISDN market in the UK, which it says remains sluggish. The reason for this, according to Ross Lewis, pre-sales consultant with the company, is mainly to do with the lack of suitable applications – and that’s largely because personal computers don’t have interfaces that run easily at 64Kbps. Nevertheless, the company believes that the benefits of ISDN are greater than users realise, and says it expects a dramatic increase in the the use of ISDN throughout the UK as a result of the offer. The free connection, worth up to UKP400, will come with terminal adaptors from the MicroTAP 1600 line, which go from UKP1,300. These enable users to connect standard V.24, X.21 and V.35 devices to the ISDN at the basic rate.
