Group to Ease ISDN Setup

Deploying ISDN services soon may become simpler, thanks to recent initiatives from ISDN equipment manufacturers and service providers.

Last week, AT&T Network Systems, along with a number of other equipment manufacturers, announced an ISDN forum that will tackle service-ordering and equipment-compatibility problems users encounter when they initiate ISDN service with a service provider.

This is the second group of ISDN vendors to emerge and address the same issues since November. And, though network managers agree that the lack of standards creates a confusing, frustrating process when ordering services, they are leery about the usefulness of additional ISDN problem-solving groups. They suggest that more groups could just make things more confusing.

"I'm a little skeptical of AT&T's effort. But somebody's got to do something. ISDN ordering is a real mess," said Jeffrey Fritz, telecom engineer at West Virginia University and a member of the NIUF. "Users already are confused about ISDN in general."

With some structure and direction, however, some...