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TELECOM AM Digest      Thursday, 24 March 1983    Volume 3 : Issue 17

Today's Topics:
                    Digital Service Into The Home
                      Home Digital Data Services
                     KP FWD And RING FWD, Anyone?
          Phone Company Line Utilization  :  Voice VS. Data
                Why Go Measured? - Fewer Interruptions
                           DEMON Dialer(r)
                   Slow Digital Connection pricing
                Query Re Modem-Less Data Communication
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Date: 16 Mar 83 23:07:10 PST (Wed)
From: sun!gnu (John Gilmore)
Full-Name: John Gilmore
Subject: Digital service into the home

I recently got a report of hearings held by the Senate Committee on
Commerce, Science and Transportation.  The chairman, Bob Packwood of
Oregon, wants to extend First Amendment protection to electronic
media, including broadcast TV, cable, radio, as well as e.g.
Washington Post on Teletext.  Part of the argument is that spectrum
space is not the scarce resource it was originally thought to be.  In
that vein the committee heard testimony from various people, one of
whom was Dr.  Solomon J. Buchsbaum, executive VP of Bell Labs.  Two
paragraphs of his testominy relate to digital phone connections to
homes:

	"Although services such as this [digital voice, fax, video,
etc -- JCG] are not yet widely available, the technology to provide
them exists.  Their deployment awaits market opportunities and the
availability of capital.

	"In 1970, about 40 million of the 60 million lines in the Bell
System could have supported 56 kilobits/second digital capability,
and, in 1980, 50 million lines.  By 1990, it is expected that as many
as 110 million of an expected 130 million lines will have access to 56
or 64 kilobits/second capability."

Oops, there's one earlier relevant paragraph:

	"Today's integrated circuit technology is making it economical
to place electronics in the local loop -- the pair of wires connecting
the telephone subscriber to the telephone company's switching center.
The introduction of electronics leads to exciting new capabilities
through the use of digital carrier facilities, similar to T-carrier,
in the loop.  Originally, digital systems were used to reduce the
number of physical wire pairs required to serve several customers; now
they also provide the means to bring digital transmission directly to
the customer premises."

You, too, can get this report by writing to: Senate Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Washington DC 20510 and asking
for the hearings on "Electronic Media and the First Amendment".
There's a lot of interesting reading in there.

	John Gilmore, Sun Microsystems

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Date: Thu Mar 17 1983 22:19:00-PST
From: Lauren Weinstein <vortex!lauren@lbl-csam>
Return-Path: <vortex!lauren@LBL-CSAM.ARPA>
Subject: home digital data services

Just to clarify the issue -- there are certainly a few home digital
data "testbeds" that will be appearing in the near future.  However, I
don't believe that any of these are being realistically priced, and so
I'll stand by my statement that when data services become generally
available, they will be priced for businesses with substantial data
needs, not the home user.

Regardless of what the companies may claim, testbed services are
almost never priced in a realistic manner and are usually heavily
subsidized by the company conducting the "tests".

---

Regarding radio techniques: there are a number of companies planning
to offer radio-based data services, mostly using MDS and other
microwave technologies.  All of the plans that I have seen to date are
oriented toward businesses with lotsa bucks.


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