Steve Sobol wrote:
Scott Dorsey wrote:

In the US, ISDN was a flop because it was too expensive, too slow, and too
late to market. If it had become available as quickly as it had in Europe
and as universally, it would have been very popular. But it wasn't.

(A) ISDN was faster than dialup - no one (hopefully) is claiming that it was
meant to replace leased lines.

The telcos were pricing it higher than many leased line facilities. Hell,
you could get Switched-56 for less than ISDN in Richmond, VA. (Sadly here
in GTE-land we couldn't get either).

I could get a 16KC 2-wire crosstown for less than a quarter what a single
remote ISDN circuit cost. And I could get the 16KC loop installed with a
week's notice, instead of a year.

(B) Yes, ISDN was expensive in some places. In Ohio we got lucky. Business ISDN
was tarriffed per minute, but you could get residential for as little as
$37/month for 75 calls/month (metered access, 8c/call after that) or about $45
flat rate.

Residental ISDN?
You have to be kidding!
Was it actually on the residential rate schedule? I gather that was
a non-tariffed service? That never made it out anywhere around here.

And I still maintain that ISDN was more useful for that time period than BPL
will be now.

I dunno, but I'd sure like to be able to order 48F burglar alarm circuits
from the telco again. Now THAT was a cheap way of doing remote work. And
sometimes it even sounded good.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."