Summary

ISDN, the international abbreviation for Integrated Services Digital Network, has become something of a message of salvation where it is a matter of assuaging dissatisfaction with the existing transmission networks. Many use the term without actually knowing what it means. In view of the fact that large-scale ISDN trials are scheduled to be launched before the end of this year in the Federal Republic of Germany, namely in the cities of Mannheim and Stuttgart, that the Federal German Post Office has again announced detailed plans to introduce narrowband and broadband ISDN extending far in to the 199Os, and that similar, though perhaps not quite so ambitious plans, exist in other countries, we consider it appropriate to inform our Members via this Special Report on the backgrounds, the functions as well as the benefits and disadvantages that can result for the newspaper company. Transforming the antiquated analog telephone network into a modern digital ISDN network is like changing a footpath crossing a field into a motorway, and seems at first to be a waste of effort. However, because it also brings about a uniformity and simultaneity of the services, this measure can only be welcomed - especially as right from the start it was based on internationallly accepted standards. ISDN and the efforts being made e towards OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) are in fact conducive to creating a new, better telecommunications world, as we shall illustrate in this Special Report.