anthony@batserver.cs.uq.oz.au (Anthony Lee) (09/03/90)
The Federation for a Democratic China is about to have their Second Congress in the middle of September (this month). Many of their members are scattered across the world. The Congress will be in San Franciso but for various reasons many members probably won't be able to attend. What is the current status of world wide teleconferencing? How many studios can be hooked at the same time? Are there any agreements between different Telcos (e.g. AT&T OTC(Australia)) for world-wide teleconferencing? Most of all, what's the cost? Thanks in advance, Anthony Lee (Michaelangelo teenage mutant ninja turtle) (Time Lord Doctor) ACSnet: anthony@batserver.cs.uq.oz TEL:+(61)-7-371-2651 Internet: anthony@batserver.cs.uq.oz.au +(61)-7-377-4139 (w) SNAIL: Dept Comp. Science, University of Qld, St Lucia, Qld 4072, Australia [Moderator's Note: To the extent the telephone administrations and the US telcos (AT&T/Sprint/MCI) have billing and interchange agreements with each other, they would have them where teleconferencing was concerned. For example, AT&T will establish a conference to anywhere in the world, provided at least one participant is in the USA. The cost is not inexpensive, but on a per-participant basis gets less expensive as more people get involved. PAT]
0003209613@mcimail.com (Sandy Kyrish) (09/06/90)
There are two kinds of teleconferencing; both are worldwide, and both are relatively commonplace. Conferences as you describe are often distributed over a one-way analog satellite uplink, with provisions for phone call-in. The signal is uplinked from the conference, and picked up by as many authorized sites as are in the footprint. (A double hop may be necessary to bring the broadcast to areas not covered by the originating satellite.) If two-way video is a must, you'll likely be using compressed video teleconferencing. Actually, multiple sites can also be hooked up here, but in any case, each site must lease a digital channel (for international, usually a T1 ckt.) Yes, many international agreements exist, with the half-circuit arrangements that PAT talks about. Costs are impossible to ballpark. Here are a few Oz mates who I bet can help you out. I don't know any of them personally but we are all members of the International Teleconferencing Association. Michelle deVries-Robbe, OTC Australia, Sydney, 612-287-5081 Michael Valos, Telecom Australia, Melbourne, 613-606-7983 Paul Griffiths, Sat. Networks Aus. Pty Ltd, St Ives, NSW 61-244-3975 Theodore Tsapepas, Aussat Pty Ltd, Sydney, 612-238-7964