USC Extends Its Reach

The University of Southern California is wiring itself for the 21st Century as a crew from American Telephone & Telegraph installs a new telecommunications nerve center. The so-called Integrated Services Digital Network, or ISDN, will enable faculty and researchers to communicate with colleagues around the world over a system that carries voice, pictures and computer data simultaneously over the same telephone line.

“USC is part of a worldwide research community,” said spokesman Hugh Kelley. “We have a tremendous interaction with other countries and other organizations worldwide.”

Under a $23-million contract, AT&T; also is delivering 10,000 telephone sets (3,000 of them ISDN-compatible), a network management system, a microwave radio link, fiber-optic and coaxial cables and three equipment rooms as well as maintenance service.

When the new system starts operating in the fall, USC will join the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and North Carolina’s Duke University as the only U.S. institutions of higher learning with ISDN technology.