#ISDN on Amiga!
26 messages in this thread
At the Danish Amiga Expo this weekend an German ISDN board for the
Amiga was presented. It also incorporates phone functions with
conference call and sound level regulation. Emulates the Hayes AT
command set and has a port for sound sampling. The fact sheet also
mentions something about answering machine capability. Price around
$500. Regards, J0RGEN ….from DENMARK
Joergen,
Thanks for the info about the German ISDN board on display at the
Danish Amiga Expo. It doesn't appear that ISDN will become a big hit
with the average consumer in the US, so that board may not have much
of a US market, but then – maybe it will find a niche? At any rate,
it is nice to see that extended networking development is continuing
for the ol' Ami'.
Real World:southern Illinois,USA Internet:ca0008 at siucvmb.siu.edu
Jim,
according to the sales rep demoing the board they had a lot of interest
from BBS SYSOPs, especially those on FidoNet, because they transmit a lot
of data between the nodes. Using ISDN really cuts down on data
transmission costs, and I think that this will be one of the niches for
ISDN. When a BBS has an ISDN line, it will also be offered to normal BBS
users, and that may spur some interest in ISDN, too.
In this country an ISDN line (i.e. ISDN-2: two 64 Kbit + one 16 Kbit line)
is priced the same as two normal phone lines, and you can use it as two
phone lines. The rates are also the same except for a 1 cent fee for each
call made, so if you need two phones, there is no excuse for not going
ISDN.
However, the current ISDN phones available are rather expensive, but
prices eventually will come down, I believe.
Regards, J0RGEN ….from DENMARK
Joergen,
WOW – I didn't realize that your phone costs were so HIGH 😉 You are
right in that ISDN may fit well within the BBS role. It may or may not
ever show up at the local switchboard for general user consumption (like
fiber optics). Oh well – time will tell.
Real World:southern Illinois,USA Internet:ca0008 at siucvmb.siu.edu
Well, Jim, my phone company keeps telling me, that in this country phone
costs are very low compared to other countries. Judge by yourself: monthly
fixed cost is $15.70 (not including any calls). Local calls: 5 cents/min,
long distance: 7.5-11 cents/min (all computed in increments of 3 cents,
not in 1 minute increments). Between 7.30 PM and 8.00 AM and on Sundays
there is a 50% rebate on these rates.
Offering ISDN at these rates ought to be a fine incentive to get it going.
Regards, J0RGEN ….from DENMARK
Joergen:
In my area, the monthly flat rate is $7.00 USD a month and local calls are
free. Long distance rates vary. There are about ten different long
distance carriers to choose from. There are four that are real popular.
They have alot of promotional programs to get your business. Oh yeah,
evening rates 5:00PM – 10:PM will give you a 30% discount and late night
and weekends will give you a 60% discount.
With that said, how can you afford to talk on the phone in your country?
-Jonathan
Well, Jonathan, you must live in an area with low phone costs. From
my time in the U.S. (1985-87) I recall paying around $11 monthly and
rather high long distance rates, but with only one phone company
available here, you have to pay, what they ask, or stay off the phone
! (sigh). However, deregulation has come, but will probably never
allow you to choose between different local phone companies.
Joergen:
I live in the Milpitas, CA (just north of San Jose, CA and in the same
county – Santa Clara) … This is the heart of silicon valley and the
rates are at about $8 month flat rate for unlimited local calls of any
duration. Long distance is determined by one of the many competitive
companies you may choose from.
-Jonathan
J0RGEN,
Humm….
My phone rates are:
About $15/month base rate
Local calls (about a 400 square mile area) FREE
Long Distance…varies with distance, first minute can be high,
following minutes much lower. My general average is about 0.30/minute
for long distance.
So if I didn't make any long distance calls…I end up paying the $15
and that's it…no matter how long I'm actually on the phone, and
around here…there are very few places that aren't in the local
calling area.
Don
I "solved" my recent long-distance problem by buying what the phone company
called a "Bell Channel" line. If you recall, Syndesis just moved to Jefferson,
WI, which is long-distance intra-LATA (dial 1) to Milwaukee. Two-three miles
from here, we'd be back in the (608) area code, but we would still be dial-1 to
there, too. So, this "channel" line is simply a Milwaukee phone number that
they've carried out to Jefferson. It's a flat rate of about $150 a month, and
$475 to install, but it's worth it to me for Compuserve and the Exec PC BBS.
Now I'm back to a "local" call to Compuserve.
Gee, John, I wonder what it would cost to get a "Bell Channel" from
Marathon to Toronto. It's only 1200 km from here!!!!
73, Kelly
I forget the particulars, but they did charge a certain amount for
connection at the nearest station, a certain amount per mile from
Milwaukee to Jefferson, and then another amount per quarter mile from
the Jefferson station. What a scam. 🙂 Those amounts are charged
every month, which accounts for the high cost – on top of the regular
service charge. But it's still quite worth it. These LATA pricing
issues really annoy me.
I sued to have such a line for my business. It was called an FX line for
"Foreign Exchange". It was ~165/month for something like 18 miles to get
into the very large Cleveland, Ohio local calling area. A change in our
calling habits made it unfeasable but it saved us plenty when we were
really pounding on it.
Goin' AP
…..Mark Sterling
Is it possible to get a flyer for that interface. Thanks, Michel Beausejour
Michel, I only have a flyer in Danish from the Danish distributor. It
only mentions the manufacturer by its name: bsc Buroautomation AG,
Germany. If you want it I can probably get more information from the
distributor.
A few facts:
Name: ISDN Master (Amiga), ISDN Blaster (IBM PC)
ISDN-2 (2 B-channels, 1 D-channel)
Autoconfiguring
Phone function: make calls from phone database, conferencing, sound level
adjustment (16-52 dB)
Answering machine: incoming/outgoing msgs from hard disk
Concurrent phone call and data communication
Amiga serial port not used
Hayes AT command set
100% Amiga serial.device compatible
Line audio input port for sound sampling
Local language Intuition user interface
The card comes with ISDN-2 card for Zorro slot, 2 meter ISDN cable, 1.5
meter audio cable, Amiga software, user manual
Requirements: Amiga 2-3-4000, Kickstart 2.0 or higher, CPU 68020 or higher
recommended
Regards, J0RGEN ….from DENMARK
Joergen,
I have to admit, that your phone rates are better than what I can get,
here in the US. Actually, I was just kidding, before, about your rates,
but I wouldn't doubt that ISDN will be more of an interest in your area
than in mine.
OH – ISDN is talked about in the "trade journals" here, but it would
appear that it is going to be more of a specialty item, than a more
"common commodity".
Real World:southern Illinois,USA Internet:ca0008 at siucvmb.siu.edu
i'am very glad to ear that somebody came up with an ISDN interface for the
Amiga ,working in the telecomm. area it might be the next thing that i will
write down on my buying list. Bye Michel Beausejour
Michel,
Though I don't see any future for ISDN in the part of the communications
world that I am involved in, I and possibly others would be interested in
what ISDN offers to you, and why you would be interested in an ISDN
capable connection to your Amiga.
Real World:southern Illinois,USA Internet:ca0008 at siucvmb.siu.edu
ISDn can offer you high speed connections to Network's with a voice connection
at the same time, it think that's a big plus. Why ISDN is not so popular may be
the price for your loop and the interface is not cheap, but that may change in
a near future… Bye Michel
Michel,
Thanks for your thoughts on ISDN. I would expect that the costs for
access and usage will drop over time, but still don't think that the
"average (American) consumer" is going to use or have direct access to
ISDN. That is something that the "local exchanges" in cooperation with the
"ISDN providers" will have to work out. Perhaps it will be an option
available in larger metropolitan areas.
Real World:southern Illinois,USA Internet:ca0008 at siucvmb.siu.edu
J0rgen,
Must be nice living in a country that doesn't make it so hard for
utilities to advance their technology to consumers.
In my town, our local Bell Canada switching station still uses the old
stepping relays!!! I would be suprised if they have the capability to
offer caller ID – which costs something like 18 cents a day (ARG)!
73, Kelly
Where do you live,over 75% of our network is digital ? Michel Beausejour (Bell
Canada employee,Quebec region)
Marathon, Ontario, population about 6k.
Are you close from a bigger city? which one?
Michel, define 'bigger'? Thunder Bay is three hours west of here and the
Soo is four hours east of here (road travel times). Line of sight is
200km and 280km, respectively. What few towns are between this location
and those two cities are smaller then us (Wawa may be similiar in size,
don't know their population).
73, Kelly