Group to Launch Effort to Move Data Off Phone Lines

A coalition of telecommunications firms led by Bellcore will launch an initiative today to move data traffic off the public voice telephone network, which has become overwhelmed by the exploding popularity of the Internet and computer online services.

Bellcore, the former research arm of the Baby Bell local phone companies, will spearhead a group that will create technical standards for equipment that can distinguish between data and voice calls. Then, data calls--whether they be e-mail messages or Web surfing sessions--can be routed on to separate networks designed to handle data more efficiently.

Internet transmissions and other data calls have been an expensive problem for phone companies, and the Federal Communications Commission estimates that they spent more than half a billion dollars last year to add capacity to their networks. By 2005, data calls could make up 90% of all calls on the phone network, according to the U.S. Telephone Assn., which represents local phone companies.

In California, Internet connections already account for more than one-quarter of all calls from residential phone customers, according to Pacific Bell.

“The industry needs a solution to deal with the problem, because it’s continuing to explode at an exponential rate,” said Jack Zatz, senior director of network performance solutions for Bellcore in Morristown, N.J.

The voice network is set up to maintain an open line between two callers for the duration of a phone call. But a data transmission doesn’t need to monopolize a phone line--it only needs an open line when it sends packets of data in bursts. To make matters worse, the typical data call lasts at least 20 minutes, but the average voice call is finished in about three minutes, according to Bellcore.

The Baby Bells and other carriers have been talking about building separate data networks to meet the demand, and a handful of companies are selling equipment to help them do that. But without a single standard, progress has been slow.

Bellcore wants to write informal but de facto standards for a device called an Internet call routing node, which can interface between the voice phone network and the newfangled data networks being built by companies such as Qwest Communications International and Level 3 Communications. Once a data call arrives on the switched telephone network, the node would intercept it and re-route it on to a data network, said Amir Atai, director and chief scientist in Bellcore’s network performance and traffic area.

Building that infrastructure won’t be cheap, but it will be much more affordable than the alternative, Atai said.

“The phone companies have to order more lines and equipment to make sure the quality of service for voice users is not degraded,” he said. “It forces them to invest more capital and money into this network that is not really designed for this. We want to try to shift that new investment into a more efficient packet network.”

If the phone companies are successful in moving data calls to a separate network, the quality of both voice and data calls will improve, said Don Heath, president and chief executive of the Internet Society, a Reston, Va.-based group that represents users of the global computer network.

“It’s got to be a win-win,” he said.

About a dozen telecommunications equipment makers--including Bay Networks and Applied Innovation--will join the standard-setting initiative, and several of the major telephone carriers have expressed interest as well, Zatz said.

Phone service and equipment companies say Bellcore is well-positioned to elicit a standard from many companies, and that doing so will improve service for both voice and data calls.

“Almost every local telephone company would be interested in doing this,” said Ells Edwards, a spokesman for Bell Atlantic’s network group, which spent more than $100 million last year on data-related network upgrades.

For starters, a standard would remove much of the uncertainty that has kept many phone companies and equipment makers on the sidelines. With a standard in place, manufacturers could boost production, which in turn would lead to faster implementation by phone carriers and lower prices for consumers, said Mary McDermott, vice president for legal and regulatory affairs for the U.S. Telephone Assn. in Washington.

Bellcore, now a unit of San Diego-based Science Applications International Corp., has been studying this problem for more than two years, and Zatz expects the industry coalition to decide on the standards by the end of the year.