 |
 |
|
|
|
|
ISDN losing out to broadband2007-04-07 According to BBC, British Telecom (BT) recently announced that it will no longer offer Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) services to consumers and is due to phase out the service by the end of this year. The reason cited is a lack of demand. Locally however ISDN is alive and well. In the BBC article BT is quoted as saying that "We are withdrawing consumer ISDN," according to the company’s spokesman, "the demand for it has dived with the availability of cheap, fast broadband." Until a few years ago ISDN was a popular alternative to slower dial-up modems, but with broadband now offering a faster, cheaper service the British have quickly opted to go with the newer technology. The average broadband speed for 50% of UK adults is 3.8 Mbps, multiple times that of ISDN. Unsurprisingly services like ADSL started dominating the market, leaving ISDN to survive only in places where it is better than ADSL, as is the case with broadcasting. South Africa different With the introduction of ADSL in South Africa, which is a flat rated service that provides superior speeds to ISDN, one would expect the same to happen locally. ISDN is however still showing healthy growth in South Africa. According to Telkom’s most recent results the number of ISDN subscriptions increased by 3.8% in the last year, from 682 000 to 708 000. This is three times the number of ADSL connections in South Africa. So why will people prefer a legacy technology like ISDN to ADSL? There are many possible reasons, but the restrictive usage limits associated with ADSL, long installation times, poor fault resolution periods for ADSL and the lack of availability of DSL have all contributed to ISDN’s impressive growth. ISDN still has value in a few environments where consistent, symmetrical connections are needed, but for the most part ISDN should fall victim to more affordable, faster connections like ADSL. The South African broadband environment is however not standard by any stretch of the imagination, the fact that ADSL is more expensive than mobile broadband offerings and ISDN more popular than ADSL is testimony to this. Source: My Broadband |
Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Terms Of Service | Sitemap