Testing a New Fiber-Optic Link to the Future : Communications: An experimental telephone hookup provides static-free signals and at-home services such as banking and shopping.
Marilyn Forsstrom of Cerritos is getting an advance sampling of telecommunications services, 21st-Century style. So far she likes what she hears--or doesn’t hear.
Her phone connections now are so “clean” that background static has disappeared. Later, she might be able to deposit funds in her savings account, buy birthday presents or register for community college classes on her television set--because her phones and TV are being jointly linked to a communications network through optical fiber cable wired into her home.
“It’s all in the ‘what if’ stage right now,” she said of these and other services. “But,” she added with anticipation, “there may be, for example, access to the encyclopedia through the library. And many city services that are hard to arrange because of conflicting hours could be done from home, such as getting dog licenses and renewing parking permits.”
Forsstrom is one of a handful of Cerritos residents--40 now, but soon to number 700--participating in the largest of about 20 marketing tests under way nationwide and in Britain, Canada and Japan. The tests, offered in Cerritos by GTE, are an effort by phone companies to learn how customers feel about the high-quality sound and new services made possible by connecting their homes with optical fiber instead of traditional copper wire.
Fiber-optics technology relies on hair-thin, flexible glass strands to transmit signals using pulses of laser light. In contrast with traditional copper wires, fiber-optic cable is impervious to atmospheric static, carries communications at the speed of light and possesses virtually unlimited capacity. So a single fiber-optic “hair” can carry all kinds of voice, video and data signals--simultaneously, flawlessly and in a flash.
But just how quickly the new technology and services become commonplace will depend on how long it takes federal and state regulators and lawmakers to create an information marketplace that encourages innovation and competition.
The types of services that fiber-optic technology makes possible--and what some of the Cerritos residents may soon sample--include:
- Video on demand. That allows customers to dial up any feature film for display at any time on their home TV. Some will even be able to stop the film to freeze an image, or set up their own instant replay, or rapidly advance the movie to a favorite scene.
- Home shopping and banking. Customers can order goods from on-screen catalogues by pressing the buttons on the phone or a remote-control device. Or they could push a few buttons on the phone or remote-control wand to reserve a city tennis court, enroll in community college classes, handle routine banking transactions or make travel arrangements.
- Live video. Customers can transmit live action shots from one TV screen to another, perhaps letting a distant grandparent witness a child’s first steps.
These examples barely tap the potential of what the 21st Century’s telephones will likely offer, said Erik Phelps, who manages a GTE demonstration center in Cerritos where the participating residents previewed services before signing on. Among other things, he said, GTE wants to learn what services consumers find most useful and--just as important--how much they would pay for them.
Early tests of new phone services elsewhere show that not everyone welcomes them.
For example, telephone officials were surprised when some customers protested, as an invasion of privacy, an advanced service that identifies a caller’s number before a telephone is answered. Congress and federal and state regulators are considering whether to require local phone companies to block “caller identification” for customers who don’t want to reveal their phone numbers. If that is done, phone companies fear, the service will lose most of its value to those who want it to screen incoming calls.
In the Cerritos experiment, only four of the test households and the demonstration center on Alondra Boulevard will be equipped to sample all the offerings that optical fibers can bring into the home. Many more participants, however, will be able to enjoy greater flexibility in watching pay-per-view cable events and other information services because the new technology opens more channels to the local cable operator, ApolloVision.
Optical fiber already makes up most of the nation’s main-line telecommunications networks--local, regional and national. It already crosses the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and is rapidly being deployed throughout most of the world’s developed nations.
But because of their greater cost, the glass wires stop short of reaching into customers’ homes and all but the largest businesses.
How quickly Cerritos’ neighbors, let alone the rest of the nation, get to enjoy the potential of extending optical fiber into homes, schools and offices depends in large part on Congress and federal and state regulators. They must, among other things, mediate and resolve a fierce turf battle between the phone companies and the cable TV industry over who should carry what signals to customers, even though fiber-optic technology makes it possible for a single phone line to satisfy all needs.
The Federal Communications Commission will begin its review of the cable-versus-telephone rivalry with a hearing set for Monday in Los Angeles City Hall.
“Government can’t do the planning but it could be the catalyst to see that it is done and it could be the referee,” said Irwin Dorros, executive vice president of technical services for Bell Communications Research. (Bellcore is the research arm jointly owned by the nation’s seven regional Baby Bell phone companies, including Pacific Telesis, split off from American Telephone & Telegraph in 1984.)
Indicative of the regulatory barriers impeding deployment of new technology and services is the fact that it took GTE more than two years to obtain necessary approvals to run its Cerritos project. This required authorization by the FCC, for example, to let the local phone company deliver cable TV in its service area--a domain that Congress in 1984 assigned exclusively to cable companies.
But none of that dampens the excitement of those participating in the Cerritos test. Marilyn Forsstrom and her husband Karl, for instance, are eager to see what educational help they may be able to tap for their three young children.
Neighbor Walter Prevost, a pharmacist whose home was among the first to be hooked up to optical fiber, said he is particularly attracted to home services that can cut down on the time needed to run routine errands like shopping and banking.
“It’s money saving and time saving if you can do things by telephone,” he said. But whether interactive phone services turn out to be cost-effective as well, “that remains to be seen.”
GTE technologists are preparing the service test, which is expected to get under way this spring. “This is a real-world test of new services and technology,” said Donald Bache, general manager of the Cerritos project for Thousand Oaks-based GTE California, the local phone company serving most of the city.
“We know this stuff works in the lab,” added spokeswoman Ilona Smith. “Now we want to see how it works in the field and learn what services customers want.”
So far, phone companies have used optical fiber to ship large volumes of computer data and conversations among their main control centers. But the so-called local loop--that last mile linking the network to customers--has remained a simple pair of copper wires, an updated application of 19th-Century technology. The high cost of converting sound to pulses of light for transmission over the glass fiber so far makes widespread deployment impractical. But the cost differential is falling fast as more fiber is deployed, and some estimates hold that substituting light-wave links for copper could become cost-effective by mid-decade.
Meanwhile, an emerging software technology called the Integrated Digital Services Network, or ISDN, will add considerable capacity and flexibility to existing connections, enabling a single phone line to carry voice, video and data simultaneously, said Leonard Glengauer, director of business applications for GTE California.
There is another side to modernizing the telephone network: development of a parallel network that has no wires, a sort of super-cellular-radio system able to carry not only voices but also data and video. This embryonic wireless network will do everything that the wired network can do.
The world’s first versions of the wireless network are expected to be operational within three years, though not in the United States (in another case of unreconciled regulatory issues) but in Britain. Pacific Telesis and US West, a regional phone firm based in Englewood, Colo., are members of two different groups picked by British Telecom to build the world’s first digital wireless networks. Putting these together with the fiber-optic delivery system being tested in Cerritos will make possible what are being called personal communications networks, or PCNs.
Instead of using telephone numbers linked to phones at fixed locations, a PCN will use personal identifiers, such as a Social Security number, unique to each user. The integrated wireless and wire networks then will be “smart” enough to track down the desired party, perhaps ringing a small portable phone carried in pocket or purse.
“The technology is available to connect people to people,” said Dorros, the Bell Communications Research executive. Nonetheless, users heavily dependent on telephone communications today must do as Dorros says he does. He maintains one telephone in his car, carries a second in his pocket, has a third in his New Jersey office and a fourth at home--each with a different number. “Whoever is trying to call me has to have all those numbers,” he observed.
Underlying the capabilities of these emerging networks is the ability to carry all kinds of information, with computer software handling the conversion into digital data for transmission. To be sure, such dependency on computer controls is not without its down side, as was demonstrated by American Telephone & Telegraph on Jan. 15, when an error in computer instructions disrupted long-distance service to AT&T; customers for nine hours until the software glitch could be traced and corrected. But such temporary setbacks will be offset by the improved services made possible by the new networks, industry officials maintain.
“We’re going to see more and more of an integrated network; one that integrates voice, data and video,” said Glengauer of GTE California. The network, he explained, will become “indifferent” to kinds of information, whether it comes in the form of sound waves, images or digits.
To Walter Prevost, the Cerritos pharmacist who already deals in data, the possibilities of his home’s new fiber-optic connections to GTE’s network holds great promise. “I really feel that not only fiber optics but also communications with computers is the wave of the future,” he said. “There’s no doubt about it.”
Neighbor Marilyn Forsstrom agreed.
“Whether the ultimate cost of the system is going to be more than we’ll want to pay for the services, we don’t know,” she said, “but Cerritos could be a real leading city in this.”
TELECOMMUNICATIONS TERMS Baby Bells--Seven companies created in 1984 to take over the local telephone services of American Telephone & Telegraph. These firms, which include Pacific Telesis in California, are testing such new telecommunications services as caller identification and voice messaging.
Federal Communications Commission--The FCC’s five commissioners regulate interstate telephone service and broadcasting under terms of the Communications Act of 1934. They hold the key in determining how quickly many new telecommunications services will become available.
Network--A system of telephone lines, switches and signal repeaters that connect all users so that error-free communication can take place.
Digital Transmission--Information recorded in a form recognized by computers, usually represented by discrete pulses rather than analog signals or continuous waves corresponding in frequency to sound waves. Digital signals make possible improved transmission quality and greatly increase how much information a single line can carry.
Optical Fiber--One of the most significant improvements in telecommunications, these strands of hair-thin flexible glass provide a guide-way along which huge quantities of digital information can be transmitted by laser at the speed of light. The medium’s vast capacity, if extended to homes and offices, would allow two-way simultaneous transmission of voice, video and data communications. In contrast, traditional copper wire has very limited and much slower transmission capability.
Interactive Services--These services allow users to communicate directly with a central computer. Customers then can respond to lists of choices by pressing numbers or letters on their telephone, enabling them to do such things as order items from a catalogue or deposit funds in a bank account. Wiring homes and offices with optical fiber will vastly increase such offerings while also allowing customers to transmit computer data, receive cable TV signals and conduct a telephone conversation over a single line simultaneously.
Integrated Services Digital Network--ISDN technology allows existing copper wires to carry voice, pictures and data simultaneously. A household so equipped could transmit computer data by telephone modem, receive cable TV programs and still talk on an extension phone--all at the same time. To do that without ISDN requires installing three separate phone lines to the customer. In effect, ISDN will allow copper wire to do much of what optical fiber does, although not with the same speed or quality.
Personal Communications Networks (PCN)--A wireless network in which phone numbers are assigned to persons rather than telephones. A caller thus can contact another person regardless of where that person is. Unresolved regulatory issues prevent deployment of such networks in this country, but Britain expects to have two operating by 1993.
