Subject: EFF ISDN Lab Report #1

From: Christopher Davis <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 14:55:27 -0400

The Switched Circuit                           #1 - 92/03/31
      (Reports from the Electronic Frontier Foundation's ISDN Lab)

   by Christopher Davis <[email-masked]> and Helen Rose <[email-masked]>

This is the first in a series of reports from the EFF's new ISDN Lab,
where we'll be working with the recently-tariffed ISDN offerings from
New England Telephone, as well as as many different kinds of ISDN
hardware as we can get our hands on.

We recently attended a seminar on ISDN given by New England Telephone
for the benefit of telecommunications consultants.  Though they focused
primarily on the business aspects of ISDN (no surprise there) they did
make the point that they were tariffing the service for residential
lines, "regular" single-line business service, and INTELLIPATH Centrex.
(The apparent market focus for the residential offering is work-at-home
or "telecommuting" opportunities, but the residential service is not
crippled in any way.)

The tariffs are interesting in their affordability; this is *not* the
gold-plated service offering we've seen from some of the regional Bells.
(Note that these only apply to Massachusetts; Maine and Vermont have
similar offerings with different tariffs, and we don't have copies of
those tariffs.)  Installation charges for ISDN Basic Rate Interface
(BRI, which supplies 2 B channels plus a D channel for call setup and/or
low-speed X.25 packet data) are low (regular installation charges, plus
$15 for each circuit-switched voice, data, or voice/data B channel) and
monthly rates are only $8 over the regular rates for that class of
service, plus $5 for data or voice/data B channels.  (Packet switched
connections at either high or low speed are more expensive, however.)
One very nice feature is that NET is not charging the usual monthly
surcharge ($2+) for tone service; this makes the price of an ISDN line
actually *cheaper* than two voice lines (which many people have in order
to make data calls while leaving their "normal" line free).  Though you
can't order two of the same type of B channel, the voice/data channel
can be used for either voice or data on a per call basis, allowing you
to order a voice channel and a voice/data channel to get, in effect, two
voice lines (while also having the ability to do circuit-switched data).

Voice calls are charged at the usual rate; if you have unmeasured voice
service, you're not going to be stuck with measured ISDN voice service.
Circuit-switched data calls (64kbps) are charged at measured rates
(until September 25, at business measured rates--currently $.0963 for
the first minute and .016 for each additional minute; after September
25, residential customers will pay $.026 for the first minute), but
are only available (currently) within the same central office.  NET
plans to make interoffice connections available starting 4th quarter
1992.  The ability to do long-distance ISDN will have to wait for
National ISDN-1, which probably won't happen until 1993 or later.

It may be possible to do 56kbps data over an ISDN "voice" connection,
since the voice connection is merely a bit-robbed digital end-to-end
connection.  This is one of the first things we'll test; if true, it
will make an already affordable ISDN tariff even more so.

As part of the ISDN Lab, we'll be trying ISDN between our place and
EFF's Cambridge office, allowing us to test both the residential and
business offerings, and everything from straight 56/64kbps "fast modem"
style connections to AppleTalk and IP over ISDN.

As part of this effort, we will be working with several computer and
telecommunications hardware providers to try out various ISDN terminal
adapters, routing software, and the like.

If you have questions about ISDN, or suggestions for the ISDN Lab, send
electronic mail to [email-masked].