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.