Marriage between PC and Telephon: Unity in similarity
Marriage between PC and Telephon: Unity in similarity
By Zatni Arbi
JAKARTA (JP): The recent hike in the cost of making a
telephone call in this country is has created a lot of public
outcry. Its impact on us, computer users, is far from negligible.
Certainly many of us are having a second thought of joining the
Internet now, especially those, like myself, who have to pay for
their own monthly telephone bills.
When talking with some insiders in the telecom business, I was
told there were at least three reasons for this increase. First,
pretty soon local calls would no longer be subsidized by the more
costly long-distance calls. This was accounted for, in part, by
the slight drop in the long-distance rates. Another reason was
that there was the plan to break up our telecommunications
provider into a number of divisions, much like the divestiture of
AT&T in 1984. This means that each division has to be able to
maintain its own operation. The last reason for raising the rates
was, as they put it, to increase revenues.
The first two reasons, in my opinion, were reasonably
justified on the condition that our telecom providers continue to
improve their efficiency. However, I lament the third reason --
if it was true, because we all know that telecommunications has
social and economic aspects that strongly affect the country as a
whole. In other words, concentrating on increasing the revenues
of some government enterprises at the cost of economic
development of the people as a whole is, to put it mildly,
contrary to the definition of providing telecommunications
services that is commonly used in international telecom society.
A number of research in the field of telecommunications have
found a positive correlation between the rate of economic growth
of a region with the level of telecommunications availability in
that region. True, it may be a chicken-and-egg situation, but why
not lay as many eggs as possible now so that there will be even
tually a lot of chicken?
Enough about the development of telecommunications in this
country. For now let us concentrate on the marriage of the
telephone and the PC, which has already taken place but most of
us still haven t heard about yet. Certainly, the marriage will
has influence on our purchasing decisions, in spite of the rate
increase in telephone usage.
Until today, all that we know is that the telephone network
can be connected to our PC via an equipment we call modem. The
word stands for modulation demodulation, and basically what it
does is convert the analog signal used by the telephone network
into the digital signal used by the computer. Attached to the
serial, or COM, port of our PC, the modem allows us to connect to
another computer across town or across the globe through the
telephone networks.
In the last two years, vendors have included fax capability
into the modems. But things are changing. The bonds between the
computer and the telecommunications network is no longer limited
to the COM-based fax/modem connection.
Caller ID
Here's a service that s going to become available throughout
the U.S. shortly. The first time I heard about it was back in
1990. When someone makes a telephone calls, his ID -- basically
his phone number -- is sent to the receiving party. If the called
party has a phone equipped with Caller ID display, he will
immediately know who the caller is. He then can make a decision
to pick up the handset and talk, or switch on his answering
machine, or route the call to another number. This will save him
from having to waste his time listening to sales pitches from
telemarketers.
Having had to deal with so many rude callers who have dialed a
wrong number and ended up calling my number, I wish we also had
this service here in Indonesia. I bet it would transform the way
people talk on the telephone, As it is the anonymity of today's
telephone system that gives them the opportunity to ignore manner
altogether.
To go back to our theme today, you might ask what Caller ID
has to do with computers? Well, most people consider Caller ID
responsible for the marriage between the computer and the
telephone. Particularly in the service industries, Caller ID has
prompted the creation of certain computer applications that help
cut service time. Let s suppose you want to order a handbag
you've seen on a catalog from a mail-order company. You call its
toll-free number. The moment a sales representative picks up your
call, her computer will take your Caller ID and process it. The
software on it will retrieve all data associated with your phone
number. Within seconds, all data about you -- your name, address,
your credit card status, and perhaps previous purchases -- will
be displayed on her screen. All you have to do is place your
order, and she will be able to determine in real time whether
your credit card still has sufficient funds to cover your order.
If you have ever placed an order over the phone, you'd know how
much time this will save. Just think about it: You wouldn't have
to repeat your name, address, telephone number, credit card
number, etc. You'd avoid the possibility of error in the process,
as well.
CTI
Here's a new buzzword, folks. It stands for Computer Telephony
Integration. It's not difficult at all to see that this new
technology is the results of the marriage between computer and
telephony. At the moment, when people talk about CTI, they' ll
talk about TAPI and TSAPI.
TAPI, Telephony Application Program Interface, is meant to
provide an interface between your PC and the telephone network.
The fruit of Microsoft-Intel joint venture, this interface allows
developers to add direct telephone support to Windows application
programs. Not surprisingly, Windows 95 will incorporate support
for TAPI. If you have a NetWare-based network and a PBX already,
you can take advantage of TSAPI, an API from Novell and AT&T.
Both enable the computer to control both dialing, answering, and
transferring calls. They also enable the computer to setup con
ference calls, too.
If you have a PBX-based telephone system at your office or
even at your home, you'll know that most of the features are
unused because of the complexity of their operation. If all the
buttons and combinations of them are represented by more readily
understood menus on the screen, you'd be able to make use of your
expensive PBX more optimally. That's just one of the advantages
of CTI.
SideKick for Windows, a reincarnation of one of Borland's
masterpieces that we reviewed sometime ago, is the first personal
information manager that is Caller ID-ready. So, if you had the
Caller ID service available and SideKick running on your PC, the
moment somebody called you all his data would pop up on the
screen -- provided you had it in your database.
Data and Voice modem
If you're thinking of buying a new fax modem this year, wait
for a while. 1995 will witness the influx of a new breed of modem
which will transmit voice and data in one call. In other words,
using this next generation fax/modem, you can talk and transfer
data on one single line without having to disconnect and re-dial.
It's really good news for telecommuters and home-based consult
ants. So, you'll be able to say, Hold on, let me now fax you the
draft I've been working on, and after the fax is sent you'll be
able to resume your discussion. In Jakarta, once you get
disconnected, you may not be able to get connection immediately
when the trunk lines get overloaded.
The switching mode is made possible by a standard from Radish
Communications. Called VoiceView, this standard has been accepted
by many vendors, including AT&T which already has its own
proprietary method for achieving the same -- or even better --
effect. Microsoft is also saying that Windows 95 will provide
support for VoiceView.
Of course, when broadband Integrated Services Digital Network
(ISDN) were available, VoiceView wouldn't matter anymore. The
integrated, 2B + D will easily deliver simultaneous -- not
switched -- voice, data, and video into the office premises. But,
boy, it might be a millennium before we have ISDN cables running
into our houses here in Jakarta.