AT&T gives ISDN a facelift >BY DENISE PAPPALARDO, East Coast Bureau Chief

Competitive pricing and business solutions were the avenues AT&T took last week when it filed new ISDN tariffs in most of its serving areas and a co-marketing agreement that addresses business customers' needs. AT&T has been filing new tariffs since June with public utility commissions in the 48 states where it offers ISDN service, said Dick Slezak, managing director of global ISDN at AT&T.

In some cases, "AT&T's reduced its ISDN pricing by 50%," said Liza Henderson, broadband consultant at TeleChoice Inc., Verona, N.J. "AT&T has been aggressively promoting ISDN by reducing prices, increasing coverage and simplifying the order process," she said.

"A couple of years ago, availability was one of the biggest problems associated with ISDN, but today it's ordering the service," Henderson said. "The order forms for ISDN are extremely complicated." AT&T has developed an easy-to-understand form and has brought it to the ISDN users' forum for standards approval.

AT&T and Incite, a division of Intecom, Dallas, also introduced a co-marketing agreement last week. AT&T will recommend Incite's Conversational Media system, which lets customers distribute ISDN to desktops throughout a corporate site via a PBX switch and Ethernet local area networks.

Most business customers have specific problems they want to solve, Slezak said. AT&T "teamed with Incite to offer customers a pre-tested package," he said.