telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) (05/27/90)
As the year 1982, and volume 2 of TELECOM Digest got underway, two
items of interest over the New Year's holiday were the annoucement of
AT&T's divestiture, and the coming of Picturephone in a big way.
Here are some comments from Volume 2, Issues 1 and 2.
Date: 29 Dec 81 22:23:16-EDT (Tue)
From: Randall Gellens <gellens.CC@UDel>
Subject: AT&T Videophone Links
Via: UDel-CC; 29 Dec 81 22:25-EST
{San Francisco Chronicle}, Wed., December 23, 1981:
Washington:
The American Telephone and Telegraph Co. yesterday proposed offering a
two-way video teleconference service beginning in 1982...AT&T said the
new, full-color Picturphone Meeting Service will be available in 16
cities in 1982 and a total of 42 cities by the end of 1983....
If the FCC approves the service, it will first be offered between New
York City and Washington, D.C., beginning next March.
The service would be made available to customers in two ways: through
a public room built by AT&T in each of the 42 cities, or through
private rooms on customer premises. It would be provided over a
digital network of satellite and Earth facilities.
Any room, public or private, would be able to communicate with any
other room on the video network....
Typical charges for a customer using two public rooms to conduct a
one-hour meeting between New York and Washington would be $1340. A
similar meeting between New York and Los Angles would cost $2380.
In the case of private rooms, usage charges would be lower: $600 for a
one-hour New York-Washington session and $1640 for the New York-Los
Angles session.
Customers installing private rooms would pay a one-time installation
charge of $124,800, as well as monthly equipment rental and access
fees of $13,420. There would also be a monthly charge of $250 per
mile to connect each room to Bell System facilities.
Customers would have the option of providing equipment themselves, the
company said.
United Press
Date: 9 January 1982 13:15-PST
From: Jonathan Alan Solomon <JSol at Rutgers>
Subject: AT&T Monopoly on local phone service disbanded
[The first paragraph of this article had to be ad-lib'd by yours truly
since that part of the Associated Press article was unreadable --JSol]
The big anti-trust suit over AT&T is over. AT&T has agreed to split
off the local phone companies into their own separate entities, which
will be regulated. The subsidiaries remaining (Bell Labs, Western
Electric, and Long Lines) will be unregulated and will be permitted to
compete in the free market (Meaning they can sell telephones to the
General Public). The following phone companies must be divested by the
American Telephone Company within 18 months, under terms of the
agreement reached yesterday:
-The New England Telephone & Telegraph Co.
-The New York Telephone Co.
-The New Jersey Bell Telephone Co.
-The Bell Telephone Co. of Pennsylvania.
-The Diamond State Telephone Co.
-The Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co., serving Washington, D.C.
-The Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. of Maryland.
-The Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. of Virginia.
-The Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. of West Virginia.
-The Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Co.
-The South Central Bell Telephone Co.
-The Ohio Bell Telephone Co.
-The Michigan Bell Telephone Co.
-The Indiana Bell Telephone Co. Inc.
-The Wisconsin Telephone Co.
-The Illinois Bell Telephone Co.
-The Northwestern Bell Telephone Co.
-The Southwestern Bell Telephone Co.
-The Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph Co.
-The Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone Co.
-The Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co.
-The Bell Telephone Co. of Nevada.
The Bell Telephone Co. of Nevada is actually a wholly-owned
subsidiary of the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co., rather than
directly owned by AT&T.
Company officials said Friday the consent decree does not yet
address the question of whether AT&T will be required to divest itself
of its minority interests in two other local operating companies: The
Southern New England Telephone Co. and Cincinnati Bell Inc.
Date: 4 Jan 1982 10:40:27-PST
From: cbosgd!mark at Berkeley
Subject: Picturephone Service
Funny, but our TV news stations just made the announcement a couple
weeks ago that Ohio Bell is NOW OFFERING this picturephone meeting
service in Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinatti, and I got the
impression that it's been available in some of the more major cities
already. I certainly did not get the impression that it was pending
FCC approval.
By the way, I was one of the guinea pigs when BTL was developing this.
It was pretty neat! The only weird thing is that there is a delay of
about .75 seconds between when you say/do something and when the guy
at the other end hears/sees it, due to satelite delays and processing.
This means it will be 1.5 seconds between the time you do something
and when you see the response. Since you are otherwise under the
impression that you are meeting face to face with the person, it feels
a little weird not to get instant response to a facial inflection or
interruption.