My mistake. I have been using the wrong term for what the Great Telephone
Experiment plans to do. Apparently what our local telco sees as it's future
cabling plan for all areas is to max out existing cabling plant, and then
add any additional lines as Pairgain circuits. So (as happened to a
customer last week) if you are connecting at a steady 42k, and you order an
extra phone line, then that circuit is manufactured out of your existing
line, leaving you with a maximum connect speed of 26.4. Great, huh?
They think this type of circuit design is wonderful, and plan to double up
every line possible in our area before they ever get out the ditch witch.
Hence, 56k is likely to be a dead end in our area within a few years.
And of course every time I ask about ISDN to GTE engineering they literally
laugh out loud over the phone. "Not even on the 5 year plan" they tell me.
Depressing as hell.
I suspect that the second line business will start to taper off after word
of this sort of thing gets around though. But at least I'll be able to get
a good price on a used PM-2 for our Hayes modem racks when I put them back
in circulation. After all, 33.6 is plenty fast enough to feed a 28k phone
line, right?
David Glynn
dglynn@mathware.com
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