Monster Media 1993 #2/Image.iso/text/tele_acc.zip/FORUM1.TXT

Text File | 1993-06-03 | 9KB | 108 lines

TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE CALLS FOR TELECOMMUNICATIONS UPGRADE

      by Paul W. Schroeder, Director of Governmental Affairs

     It's the vacation you've waited years to enjoy.  You're hundreds of miles from home
in a small rural community where people lock their doors at night only if they
remember.  Maybe today you'll do a little fly fishing, or just sit and read.  You have an
appointment at 2:30 with your doctor back home, but that's no problem, even in a town
too small for a hospital.  You're an expert at using the wireless medical monitoring
device you brought--a device which will record a host of facts about you, compress the
information, and send it to a broadband communications network which transmits the
information to your doctor.  If he sees a problem, he can activate the receiver in your
medical monitor and talk to you about it.  Back at the quaint little motel room you've
taken for the week, your kids are in front of an intelligent TV/computer terminal, not
merely watching TV, but competing with other kids around the nation in an exciting quiz
program.  At the same time, that intelligent communications device is recording the
compressed audio that will make up your daily paper.  The stories are selected for you
based on a comprehensive reading profile you set up earlier using the same
communications device on an interactive two-way hookup between your vacation spot
and the newspaper's offices.
     Sounds too much like science fiction to be believable, right?  Maybe, but the
technology is already here that would allow for just such a scenario and for even more
sophisticated ones.  One thing is certain.  Blind and partially sighted Americans can't
afford to be shut out of the communications revolution by graphical delivery schemes
that are unfriendly to speech or braille output.      The technology's here, but a
profusion of questions still remain--questions like who will actually lay the electronic
super highway needed to carry the information to your door.  How fast will the fiber
optic super highway be put in place?  And above all, who will ultimately pay the bill for
all this added access?  Perhaps you're wondering about the difference between
broadband and narrowband telecommunications.  The copper wires that connect your
phone to the vast public network of telephones around the world are okay for doing
single jobs like talking to a friend or sending information between two computers.
Those wires currently operate using the narrowband concept.  Fiber optic cables are
hair-thin wires capable of transmitting and receiving large amounts of information.  A
telecommunications super highway will be made of fiber optic cables and have the
capacity to handle an almost unlimited number of transmissions, especially when
compared to current copper wire technology.
    All those unanswered questions ultimately need answers.  That's where the Alliance
for Public Technology comes into play.  Consisting of individuals and more than 40
nonprofit groups with thousands of members including the American Council of the
Blind, the alliance will likely be in the forefront when policies are made which deal with
who has access to the telecommunications super highway and at what price.      At its
annual conference in Washington, D.C., in late February, the alliance released a report
entitled "Connecting Each to All:  A Telecommunications Platform for the Information
Age."  The report calls on Congress and the Clinton administration to bring the
revolution in communication technologies and services to all Americans in their homes,
schools and workplaces.
     "We do not want a single household or school district to be denied access to the
telecommunications revolution," said Dr. Barbara O'Connor, chair of the APT Board of
Directors and coauthor of the vision paper.  "The benefits of 'connecting each to all'
range as far and wide as our imagination will take us," O'Connor added.  "But we have
to have a common vision that guides the legal and regulatory decisions being made
today--decisions that will have consequences reaching well into the 21st century."      The
Alliance vision paper calls for upgrading the public telephone network to a broadband
telecommunications platform that supports two-way interactive multi-media applications.
   Panel members say unless regulations can be crafted early on in the super highway-
building process, a two-tiered system will inevitably develop.  Panelists fear that society
will be divided among people who are information rich and those who are information
poor.  "APT believes that everyone should have access to two-way voice, video and data
communications," according to Dr. Susan Hadden, an Alliance for Public Technology
board member and coauthor of the report.  "But there is a real danger that the benefits
of a broadband network will only flow to the fortunate few if public policy makers are
timid or guided by a minimalist vision of the future.  To do great things, we have to
imagine great things.  Universal access to the broadband network and its services will
allow individuals to obtain information and entertainment when and how they want it.  It
will allow information providers to offer innovative services to everyone on the network.
And it will make the United States competitive in global markets with nations that are
well on their way to deploying national broadband telecommunications networks."
Current telephone and video technology are transmitted by narrowband facilities.  The
copper wires that bring telephone voice and data service to your home today can't
handle broadband technology.  Sending broadband signals down narrowband copper
wires is analogous to funneling the contents of the ocean through a straw.  But the new
elements of the telecommunications super highway are expensive to build.  Some experts
say it could be as long as 15 years before every American home, school, and business is
wired with fiber optic cable.  Business users will probably be the first to benefit from the
broadband advantage.  Alliance members say they want to make certain that consumers
who are blind or otherwise disabled have every opportunity to enjoy broadband
telecommunications.
     Paul Schroeder, ACB's director of governmental affairs, underscored the importance
of telecommunications policy to people with disabilities.  In a speech at the conference,
Schroeder urged the telecommunications industry to involve people with disabling
conditions in the design of telecommunications services and equipment.  Drawing a
parallel with the Americans with Disabilities Act, Schroeder said, "Telecommunications
equipment and network services must be developed and designed to be fully and directly
usable by persons with disabilities."      While some might argue that the Alliance for
Public Technology's report is just another stack of paper blowing in Washington's
legislative wind, the reality is that the report's release is timely.  As you read this story,
legislation may already be introduced in Congress which would be the first steps in the
remodeling of the telecommunications infrastructure.  It would lift the ban on equipment
manufacture by the Bell companies and could allow the Regional Bell Operating
Companies to create and distribute information, something they were prohibited from
doing by the court-decreed breakup of AT&T a decade ago.      As is true with many
revolutions, you can be certain the telecommunications revolution won't happen without
a few legislative gun battles and maybe even some casualties along the way.  Thorny
questions remain about how your phone company and your cable company will operate
in the new technological arena.  And it's not wise to assume the local newspaper is going
to sit back and watch all this happen from a distance.  But when the dust settles, you will
very likely be able to take that badly-needed vacation and keep that doctor appointment
800 miles away back home.  That may happen sooner than you realize.      "Our vision
can be found today in limited applications across the country," O'Connor says.  "In
California, the seventh grade science curriculum relies on computer terminals and voice,
data and video links instead of textbooks.  Doctors in Austin, Texas have monitored
dialysis patients receiving treatment 65 miles away using two-way video communications.
And Martin Marietta is using a fiber optic broadband network to facilitate
telecommuting.  The challenge we face is to make sure that services like these are
available to all Americans."