What does an ISDN telephone line. what can it do?

Question

What does an ISDN telephone line. what can it do?

Answer 1

Almost the same as DSL, a high speed internet service. Not as fast as cable though.

Answer 2

My answer:

Bi-Directional Digital Phone line often used for Videoconferencing between two connected systems.  Now more likely being replaced by the Internet connected based Videoconfercing Systems.

Quoted answer:

"Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), originally "Integriertes Sprach- und Datennetz" (German for "Integrated Speech and Data Net"), is a circuit-switched telephone network system, designed to allow digital transmission of voice and data over ordinary telephone copper wires, resulting in better quality and higher data speeds than are available with analog."

Quote from this source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISDN

Still quoting that source:

"    * Integrated Services refers to ISDN's ability to deliver at minimum two simultaneous connections, in any combination of data, voice, video, and fax, over a single line. Multiple devices can be attached to the line, and used as needed. That means an ISDN line can take care of most people's complete communications needs at a much higher transmission rate, without forcing the purchase of multiple analog phone lines.

    * Digital refers to its purely digital transmission, as opposed to the analog transmission of plain old telephone service (POTS). Use of an analog telephone modem for Internet access requires that the Internet service provider's (ISP) modem converts the digital content to analog signals before sending it and the user's modem then converts those signals back to digital when receiving. When connecting with ISDN there is no analog conversion. ISDN transmits data digitally, resulting in a very clear transmission quality. There is none of the static and noise of analog transmissions that can cause slow transmission speed.

    * Network refers to the fact that ISDN is not simply a point-to-point solution like a leased line. ISDN networks extend from the local telephone exchange to the remote user and includes all of the telecommunications and switching equipment in between."

Answer 3

Because they're Digital lines, speech cannot be intercepted by a third party which makes them TOTALLY secure.

This type of line can be had by anyone requiring such privacy,  government bodies, solicitors, law enforcement etc etc to name a few.

To Joe r.....ISDN2e uses ONE pair,

ISDN 30 uses TWO pairs.

Both ISDN services can be set point to point OR point to multi-point.

Answer 4

"standard phone lines"???? no ISDN uses 2 pairs, (a standard line and dsl lines use a single pair) and costs much more then DSL, but I believe like a T-1 you can use it as a point to point connection, unlike DSL

Answer 5

Integrated Services Digital Network

Answer 6

In a nutshell (without getting too technical), ISDN (Integrated Services Data Network) is the predecessor to DSL (Digital Subscriber Line).  Both are data services available over regular telephone lines.

In the beginning, ISDN was mostly used by businesses but is available for residential too.  DSL is the newer kid on the block and is now able to provide much faster data transfer rates than ISDN and is quickly becoming the data line service of choice.

ISDN service is available in some areas where DSL has not yet been implemented and thus, is the only choice available for some people to access high-speed Internet over standard phone line (requires different hardware).  ISDN Data rates tend to be limited to 128 Kbps,  whereas DSL can now provide upwards of 5 Mbps.