ISPreview investigates the future of ISDN in the UK

As a Vispa point of view, then yes, ISDN should be dropped in price, the encouragement to get people to access the Internet at faster rates means that we can start to introduce more exciting services. ISDN has been in commercial use for well over 10 years now. However people need to take into account that a lot is happening at the moment, broadband is good, but far from a solution for all..... .the dust needs to settle so that some clear paths are defined.

-Martin - VISPA MD"

Martin also made another point about how quite a percentage of their customers still used 14,400Kbps connections. This proves that the Internet is a paradox, it moves faster than lighting to advance; yet a great majority are unwilling to exchange their old kit for new. Put another way, people will still be using 56Kbps modems 5 or 10 years from now simply because you can't change all the phone lines and some don't want to anyway.

So for the same reason ISDN will also still exist, just like older modems it will be pushed further under the carpet, but will remain for sometime to come. Invariably ISDN has the capacity to replace modems as the connection medium of choice, however whether BT chooses to make that few £'s price reduction and put it in such a bracket is firmly up to them.

ISDN continues to grow and more so than before, if anything the recent broadband delays have strengthened peoples resolve to have it installed. Strange to say the least, but you never can tell what'll happen next on the net. The problem this has is that it simply gives BT more reason to maintain the higher prices.

To finally sum things up, ISDN will be around and eventually BT will have to lower prices one way or another. With free local calls being available by 2004/5 it could help push prices down around 2002, however we don't expect to see a drop in price until then. ISDN exists and it'll stay that way, although eventually we'll all move away from it unless something is done. On the other hand modems will exist for far longer due to no installation costs and special hardware being required (at the exchange).

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