BT cuts ISDN charges ahead of ADSL

BT has slashed the price of its ISDNconnect service, which gives customers a constant data connection for low volume transmissions.

Following the price cuts, which were effective from 1 June, the service now carries a connection charge of £20 plus VAT and a quarterly charge of £10 plus VAT - savings of 50 per cent and 43 per cent respectively for those upgrading their ISDN 2 or Business Highway lines.

BT's ISDN 2e and Highway services use two 64Kbps channels, called B channels. There is also a D channel which has a permanent connection to the exchange and is used to establish calls on the B channels. The ISDNconnect upgrade lets customers use the D channel for low bandwidth data transmissions.

The service lets businesses transmit data in real time at a maximum burst rate of 2.4Kbps. It has been designed for credit card validation, stock control, loyalty card management and Lan router management. BT is demonstrating the product at Networks 2000, which runs until 29 June.

BT's price cuts come as its ISDN services face a competitive threat from ADSL, which several companies, including BT Openworld, will start offering in September.

Melayna Yeo, ISDN/BT Highway product marketing manager, said: "BT has adapted its pricing strategy to ensure that charges for ISDN remain extremely competitive against the decreasing cost of call charges."