Pacific Bell plans to file application with public utilities commission to debut ISDN.

Pacific Bell plans to file application with public utilities commission to debut ISDN 

Pacific Bell plans to file with the Public Utilities Commission by the end of this year an application to sell to California consumers a new technology billed as a revolution in the transmission of information from the office to the home.

The technology, called integrated services digital network (ISDN), could be available to California consumers by early 1992, said Robert Rustad, project manager of ISDN applications for Pacific Bell. Demand from telecommuters -- people who work at home but are electronically linked with their offices -- for more sophisticated services is a primary reason Pacific Bell is pursuing the new system, he said.

David Gamson, a senior policy analyst with the advisory and compliance division of the PUC, explained that ISDN "allows you to send data and voice over the same line at the same time, which you currently cannot do unless you put in your own private system," he said. "It's not a new line, but a new technology on the line."

ISDN technology is already available to Pacific Bell customers who subscribe to the Centrex service, Rustad said. Centrex acts in place of an in-house PBX, the electronic system located in a customer's building that transmits calls. Centrex has a basic charge of $29.50 a month and is used mainly by large- to medium-sized companies, Rustad said.

Pacific Bell officials consider the service charge of $29.50 too high to appeal to a mass market, he said. But it has not decided yet on a price for the service, but it will be below $29.50, he noted.

The state utilities commission would have to approve the price before the service could be sold to consumers.

"This is a way to satisfy the increasing demand that we have seen in increasing numbers in the residential and small business area," Rustad said.

Most of the Bell systems are working on some kind of ISDN system, said Paul Wayne, director of research at investment firm Crowell Weedon in Los Angeles. He predicts that telephone companies won't see "meaningful" revenues from the service until the middle or the end of the decade.

Such technology could help to "explode" not only the growing trend of telecommuting, but the market for office machines and equipment for telecommuters, said Tom Miller, director of home office research at LINK Resource Corp., a New York-based research and consulting firm.

About 38.4 million Americans perform income-producing work in the home, according to a LINK study released this year. About 5.5 million Americans were telecommuters in 1991, up from 4 million in 1990, according to the survey.

The telecommuter trend is expected to more than double by 1995, according to LINK research. Computer modems are found in 16 percent of telecommuter households and fax machines in about 7 percent, according the survey.

"At this point in time, the telecommunications market is seen as one part of the home office market," Miller said. There are few companies that are selling items just for telecommuters, he said.

US Integrated Technologies, a Richmond, Calif.-based firm, has developed a computer system with a built-in fax machine, telephone answering machine and a modem which was designed with telecommuters in mind, said Thomas R. Cutler, sales and marketing product manager for US IT.

The system can be hooked up to a single phone line and the user must switch it from phone to fax to modem according to need, Cutler said. "The user must decide if you are sending a fax or listening to a message," he explained.

The two systems retail for $1,995 for the home office which is equipped with a 286SX computer and $2,995 for the professional home office which is equipped with a 386SX computer, Cutler said. The two systems have been available for about a year, he said.

For now, the company is trying to market to companies which have telecommuting programs, Cutler said. "Initially we looked at the entrepreneurial marketplace, but I don't think that's where it should be marketed." he said.

PHOTO : ISDN: Billed as the latest technology