BT is to withdraw Integrated Digital Services Network (ISDN) services from consumer use later this year.
ISDN proved very popular with people working from home who needed access to data connections faster than available dial-up modem speeds.
"We are withdrawing consumer ISDN," said a BT spokesman, "the demand for it has dived with the availability of cheap, fast broadband."
But some broadcasters feel the service is still essential to their jobs.
Back when home net users relied on dial-up modems and fast data pipes were so expensive that only businesses had them, ISDN emerged as a hugely attractive alternative.
My dad had bonded ISDN with support for X.25 from about 1999 up until broadband was enabled in his area early last year. It was quite decent for surfing the net, of ocurse he pretty much got the full 128Kbps when downloading as the contention on the service was/is 1:1.
It was never going to be a mass industry, the maximum they can go is T1 (1.54Mbps iirc), by bonding loads of single ISDN lines together. But it was fast when it was first released (bear in mind in 1996/97 when it was first offered to consumers, we were still struggling along with 28.8Kbps dial up modems and getting to grips with the V.34 protocol lol! So it was ahead of its time.
Just a pity it couldnt be provided cheaply in its day, or more people might have had it.
ISDN is dead... long live xDSL.
BBC News Report 
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