ISDN's fight for world recognition Standards can be set by committee or by the market. ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) was set by committee and is correspondingly exactly defined, highly reliable, perfectly integrated and somewhat expensive to install. In Germany ISDN has become widely popular as Deutsche Telekom has invested highly in it. In other countries usage is mixed though in general more lines are being installed as prices are coming down. Like DECT and GSM, ISDN is a European standard that has found application elsewhere. However because it is not a full world standard and ISDN varies slightly between continents, the computer industry has had difficulties accepting it wholesale. Bill Gates has been fan of ISDN and praised it in a speech at CeBIT 1995. The benefits are clear, it offers fast, stable, digital transfers which can be used for both voice and computer data. Simultaneous voice and data transfers are also possible. By combining its two standard 64 kbit channels ISDN also provides a basis for video conferencing. In Europe there is now a range of ISDN connection boards in ISA, PCI and PC Card format. As ISDN is a fixed link only for the office or home, external boxes such as those that fit on the parallel port are also highly attractive for notebook users. ISDN's main attraction in Germany is that it is an advanced standard that is available now. Certainly it provides fast connections for internet surfers and larger data transfers. A minor drawback is the slight difficulty in getting ISDN to work with Windows 95. Microsoft promises better support in future releases. For users who can exploit it now, it has obvious benefits. The virtually instantaneous call up time makes it useful and cheap for short data transfers such as e-mails, and its high throughput makes it ideal for Windows 95 remote network access (RAS). But ISDN's future is hard to predict, the jury is still out on its world-wide usage. Cable modems for home connectivity In countries where TV cabling is widespread, the idea of a cable modem for connectivity with the Internet is proving highly attractive. In the USA various test runs are already underway. There cable TV providers are becoming or linking up with Internet providers to offer very fast data download speeds. The hardware used for this connectivity is known as a cable modem but is effectively range of hardware functions, the most important of which is a network card, usually in the form of a 10base T Ethernet card. Cable modems usually deliver up to 10 Mbps or 1.5 MB of data (the speed of the network card) although some companies are testing faster ones. Speeds of up to 30 Mbps have been discussed but in fact very few PCs can currently accept data that fast. For sending data in the other direction (a much trickier feat give the levels of local interference) most cable modems offer speeds around 200 Kbps or up to 2 Mbps. As most Internet data is a one way supply this is not a major detraction. In Europe cable modems are still in the test phase. One problem is that cable operators may not be legally allowed to offer Internet services., Another is that they may also be the local phone company who would rather you pay for each call instead of using the cable paid for with a monthly sum. For mobile PC users cable modems offer little real usage other than surfing with the work PC at home. If companies use Intranets accessible with appropriate security via the Internet, however, working at home could benefit. Unless such modems also became standard in hotel rooms, it is difficult finding the obvious advantage for truly mobile PC users.