“In the current age of ever increasing ADSL penetration and speed, it is easy to forget that ISDN still plays an important role in the core business tools for many sectors. Nowhere is this more true than in the broadcast sector where ISDN has long been essential to guaranteeing the quality of broadcast data.
ISDN provides broadcasters with dedicated bandwidth and synchronous transfer rates, without the spectre of latency or contention rates. This allows the quality and clarity of a broadcast session to be guaranteed - especially essential during a live broadcast and above and beyond the quality available on VoIP or even traditional telephone lines. So while broadband has quickly become the dominant access medium for the consumer sector, ISDN is still often the technology of choice for broadcasters to use for phone interviews.
The planned phase out of ISDN across Europe has worried many who, unsurprisingly, prefer to stand by tried and tested access media. In fact, the phase-out of ISDN should be seen as a great opportunity as operators look to new methods of guaranteeing sessions for broadband. Bandwidth Management solutions are allowing IP to be used for the broadcast of voice and video regardless of the network topology being utilised - ADSL, next-generation MPLS networks or even IMS. This promises to allow broadcasters to benefit from the greater geographical penetration and faster transfer rates of broadband whist knowing the quality of the session will carry the same guarantees as ISDN.”