Access made easy, Pac Bell unwraps ISDN/Internet package >BY DAN O'SHEA, Technology Editor

In one swift move at the Comdex trade show in Las Vegas last week, Pacific Bell demystified two of the service opportunities that have most vexed the telco ranks in recent years: the marketing of ISDN and Internet access.

The carrier unveiled Pacific Bell Home Pack, which combines the service provider's FasTrak ISDN offering, Internet access, 3Com Corp.'s 3ComImpact IQ ISDN modem and Netscape Communications' browsing software into a single package. The offering is available for about $500.

The solution directly addresses the problems of complexity that have dogged ISDN sellers and buyers for so long, while also answering users' needs for speedier Internet access, said Bob Lee, president of business communication services at Pacific Bell.

"People are readily awaiting simplicity," he said. The carrier surveyed 12,000 of its dial-up Internet subscribers in California and found that more than half were interested in subscribing to a bundled ISDN and Internet offering.

When purchasing ISDN for Internet access today, users face so many choices for line configurations, ISDN terminal adapters, and Internet access equipment and software that more than 2700 service permutations are available (see table)-too many to clearly comprehend, said Lee. With one configuration, the Home Pack gives users only one decision to make.

"This is the next step in simplifying ISDN and wide area networking for the mass market," said Reginald Best, vice president and general manager of 3Com Corp. He compared it to replacing the starting crank on a Model T with an ignition key.

Lee admitted that the price is higher than analog Internet access packages but added that digital's capacity and versatility is worth its cost.

Pacific Bell-arguably the most progressive Bell company in terms of ISDN and Internet strategies-currently offers ISDN to 97% of the households and businesses that it reaches in California.

ADSL TO THE MASSES The throng at Comdex last week was treated to a variety of asymmetrical digital subscriber line demonstrations from the likes of Motorola and Ameritech, which ran a comparison demonstration with 28.8 kb/s analog modem technology. Both companies reported that user interest and understanding of ADSL ran high at the show. ADVENTURES IN ANALOG Among more than a dozen companies demonstrating 56 kb/s modem technology, Rockwell Semiconductor and its recently acquired Brooktree division announced that Rockwell's K56 Plus will interoperate with Lucent Technologies' new V.flex 56 kb/s chipsets. This compatibility will help Internet service providers interested in offering 56 kb/s modems to easily integrate them with their current infrastructures.

ON-LINE Meeting of the minds By buying Bellcore, SAIC creates an entity with formidable technological prowess... ISDN reincarnated New developments prove that reports of ISDN's death were largely exaggerated.

OFF-LINE Too much technology? ...but will the resulting company lack the marketing savvy it needs to succeed in the open market? Wireless cable washup MMDS teeters on the edge of infamy as telco support flags and technical problems proliferate.

When talking about high bandwidth these days, telecommunications industry insiders mean at least 1.5 Mb/s. ISDN's turtle-paced 128 kb/s has long been passed by rabbit-quick digital subscriber line and cable modem technologies. Now, even souped-up analog modems at 56 kb/s are threatening ISDN.

But not everyone is ready to throw handfuls of dirt on top of its coffin. Just last week, two ISDN associations agreed to work together to promote the technology: AT&T upgraded its network architecture for ISDN, and Bellcore rolled out an application to simplify ISDN sales.

"ISDN is here and now. Everything else is something that will happen in the future," said Deepak Kamlani, executive director of the Vendors ISDN Association, which is now working with the National ISDN Council to promote the technology's further usage. "We're about to see the best years of ISDN. Of course, we still have some challenges in making it similar to the easy plug-and-play European experience.

For proof that ISDN will thrive, Kamlani points to the vendor community, where manufacturers are working on newer and better devices, as well as to the customer side, where demand for higher bit-rate access is up because of the growth of the Internet and telecommuting.

AT&T's upgrade is the introduction of network control point screening for all switched digital AT&T traffic, including ISDN.

A database of ISDN users will be kept, and each time the person logs on, a query for access and service is sent to the database. An intelligent signaled response routes the user to the appropriate network and services. For the first time, all ISDN traffic will go up on a virtual network through Advanced Intelligent Networking.

"Now we're going to be able to move into the next step of adding features and functionality," said Will Davis, AT&T Global ISDN manager. "On the virtual network platform with access to the database and more functionality, we can crush voice and data together as one. By 1998, you'll see many of the features similar to enhanced voice services become available on ISDN.

Network management will also be easier, he said. Instead of multiple avenues of access to the network, all access will be available through one standardized platform.

Bellcore's ISDN software can be customized to make sales easier. The software, called ISDN Advisor, is targeted at carriers and offers a database of ISDN applications, services, ordering codes and customer premises equipment to match up with a customer's needs.

Still, an ISDN resuscitation depends on carriers, said Michael Finneran, president of dBrn Associates in Hewlett Neck, N.Y. The good news is that there have been many small announcements to advance the technology, he said. But there is some bad news as well.

"ISDN is a complex market, and carriers have to deploy it," Finneran said. "The phone companies haven't gotten their act together. They just aren't delivering the goods, and [the more they delay] on ISDN, the smaller the niche market will be.