Chapter 8: Services Supported by Access Networks

Chapter 8: Services Supported by Access Networks

?So desperately hungry for material that they?re scraping the top of the barrell.?

?Gore Vidal

8.1 Introduction

The emergence of new telecommunications services may be similar to the emergence of applications software after the personal computer became established. In both cases a basic platform is required and the precise applications are not easy to predict in advance. However, the development of telecommunications services has lagged behind the development of personal computer applications software, and advances such as fax and e-mail sometimes seem to have occurred despite the activities of the international telecommunications fraternity.

The culprit responsible for the delay in the development of advanced telecommunications services may be the fallacy that these require centralized control by the telecommunications operators. Many of the services that were originally intended to be provided by telecommunications operators through new digital exchanges are now provided by the telephone handsets themselves. Even a feature such as call forwarding, which requires interaction with the exchange, can be replaced by an appropriate message left on an answering machine, since this fulfills the same functional requirement and is simpler to implement.

The promise of centrally controlled telecommunications services appears to have been as fruitful as the promise of centrally controlled communist economies. The growth of new services has been most vigorous at the periphery of the telecommunications network, especially where this has not been subject to bureaucratic restraint. This growth has involved using modems to overcome the limitations of conventional analog telephony...

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Access Networks: Technology and V5 Interfacing

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