roundtable: Fwd: BA Cuts ISDN Usage Rates

roundtable: Fwd: BA Cuts ISDN Usage Rates

Fwd: BA Cuts ISDN Usage Rates

W. Curtiss Priest (BMSLIB@mitvma.mit.edu)
Thu, 01 Jun 95 06:38:02 EDT 

Message-Id: <9506011040.AA20999@a.cni.org>
Date:  Thu, 01 Jun 95 06:38:02 EDT
From: "W. Curtiss Priest" <BMSLIB@mitvma.mit.edu>
To: Telecommunications Policy Roundtable <ROUNDTABLE@CNI.ORG>
Subject: Fwd: BA Cuts ISDN Usage Rates


FYI, (These rates will make many reconsider the trade-offs between 
ISDN and a leased line)

Curt Priest, CITS 
<bmslib@mitvma.mit.edu>

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Date: Wed, 31 May 95 13:04:24 PDT
From: BBracey@aol.com
To: Multiple recipients of list <nii-teach@wais.com>
Subject: Fwd: BA Cuts ISDN Usage Rates


This is in reference to the discussion we had been having on the list. 
Rates are dropping.. as was predicted. B
---------------------
Forwarded message:
From:	howarth@ba.com (Bell Atlantic)
Sender:	ba-list@ba.com
Reply-to:	ba-list@ba.com
To:	ba-list@ba.com (Multiple recipients of list)
Date: 95-05-31 14:32:04 EDT




NEWS RELEASE *********************************************************
******************************************************** BELL ATLANTIC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                   MEDIA CONTACT:
May 30, 1995                             Dave Pacholczyk, 703-974-3428





         BELL ATLANTIC CUTS THE COST OF HIGH-SPEED ACCESS
                 TO THE 'INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY'

            ISDN usage rates to fall 60 percent June 1


ARLINGTON, VA - Bell Atlantic customers will soon be able to
telecommute to their office computer networks, access the Internet,
conduct inexpensive, desktop videoconferencing, and send highly
complex graphics files to remote locations -- all at dramatically
lower rates -- following Bell Atlantic's decision to cut its
per-minute charges for using Integrated Services Digital Network
(ISDN) technology.

Beginning June 1, Bell Atlantic telephone companies' "basic rate" ISDN
(BRI) customers will see a  60 percent reduction in usage costs for
local data transmission -- from 5 cents to 2 cents per minute -- for
each ISDN data channel.  BRI offers users two separate data channels
that, combined, provide communications speeds up to 128 kilobits of
information per second.

With the new rates, a typical telecommuter, for example -- working
remotely from home and using ISDN to access his or her office database
for about an hour a day -- will pay only $12 a week in usage costs,
about the price of one day's parking at a downtown office building.

For Internet users, it will mean being able to navigate -- and
download -- the rich graphics, video and sound files of the World Wide
Web at four times the speed of today's fastest modems, and at a cost
of about half-a-cent per megabyte.

"Our customers have told us that price was one of the issues they've
weighed in using this advanced technology," said James G. Cullen, Bell
Atlantic vice chairman.  "This move to significantly cut costs for
those customers is a breakthrough in making the service more
affordable.  And it demonstrates our commitment to remove a stumbling
block that may have prevented them from taking advantage of our
high-speed network in the past."

ISDN is an all-digital network technology that combines voice, data
and video signals on a single phone line.  Uses include telecommuting,
through access of a local area network, desktop video-conferencing,
collaborative computing and high-speed on-ramps to the Internet and
on-line service providers.

Demand for ISDN is growing rapidly, spurred by a combination of
customer applications and network needs like Internet access.  Bell
Atlantic currently has more than 111,000 ISDN lines deployed to
customers in its service territory.

The current push by Bell Atlantic to reduce prices for ISDN follows
other moves by the corporation to stimulate more widespread
availability and use of the technology.  Last year, Bell Atlantic
introduced its "ISDN Anywhere" program to make the technology
universally available throughout its service territory.  That program
eliminated "foreign exchange" charges that remote customers often had
to pay to get the technology delivered to their Bell Atlantic
switching office location.

ISDN service is currently available from Bell Atlantic for $19.50 a
month, plus the cost of a normal business telephone line.  Bell
Atlantic plans to begin offering residential ISDN service by the end
of the year.

Bell Atlantic Corporation is at the forefront of the new
communications, entertainment and information industry.  The
Philadelphia-based company provides a full array of local
telecommunications services throughout the mid-Atlantic region and is
one of the nation's largest cellular carriers.  Bell Atlantic is a
partner in national alliances that will offer wireless communications,
as well as video and interactive programming.  Bell Atlantic also has
substantial holdings and operations in international markets and
provides services for customer-based information technology.

                                   ###

INTERNET USERS:  Bell Atlantic news releases, executive speeches, news
media contacts and other useful information are available on Bell
Atlantic's  media relations World Wide Web site (http://www.ba.com),
by gopher (gopher://ba.com) or by ftp (ftp://ba.com/pub).

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