THE WIRED FUTURE
                            PART THREE

                         Pulling the Plug
                                by
                          Robert Parson


     The Cable Industry and The Phone Industry are busily 
rebuilding their networks with Fiber Optics.  The Phone Industry 
in particular is very concerned about ISDN.
     The Integrated Services Digital Network will allow digital 
voice and data transmission simultaneously at much higher rates of 
speed than we see with our current analog networks.  In our analog 
systems, data transmission cannot co-exist with voice transmission 
on the same line.  In addition, The digital data must be broken 
down to sound before transmission, then reconstructed at the 
receiving end.  ISDN will solve many, if not most, of those 
problems because it is being designed to specifically accommodate 
digital signals.  Fiber Optics is a big part of this 
reconstruction.  The Cable Industry is working on similar 
technology.
     But those two communications giant had been eyeing each other 
so closely they failed to see others off to the side quietly 
working on alternatives.  One of those alternatives is data 
transmission through the use of radio.
     Apple Computer and Motorola have joined forces to create this 
radio based technology.  They have already petitioned the Federal 
Communications Commission to allow them to have space on the radio 
spectrum to develop it.
     One of the unfortunate side effects is that the spectrum they 
have asked for is commonly used by Safety Forces.  Police and Fire 
Departments nationwide have complained about this commercial use 
of Emergency Services frequencies.  A compromise has recently been 
reached that would require developers to pay a major portion of 
the cost of moving Safety Forces to new frequencies.
     Previously we have discussed that the goal of the 
Telecommunications Companies is to be the company that provides 
the one wire for business and households to access every sort of 
information available.
     The goal of the new players is to remove the wire and provide 
all information through the airwaves.  According to the FCC, the 
airwaves are for the public use.  So why not allow the public to 
have that use to the fullest degree possible?
     As it stands now, the plan is for a businessperson, either an 
employee or a client, to be able to walk into a building, push a 
button on their Information Appliance and have access to the 
network, without having to make an actual physical connection.
     Using the airwaves for digital transmission provides 
limitless possibilities.  Hooking up a new computer to the system 
will eventually be as easy as pushing a button.  The Bandwidth is 
much wider than it can be for any kind of wire.  The primary 
problem with radio transmission is distance.  The further away 
from the server a client is, the more likely errors are to creep 
in.  But then this is a problem with wire networks as well.
     The technology for radio transmission of data already exists.  
Some BBS systems use HAM Radio for transmission.  But this is a 
crude beginning.  The Packet Radio networks, as they are called, 
use roughly the same technology as the more common telephone based 
BBSs.  The new radio technology being developed steps far beyond 
the current Packet Radio technology.
     As can be expected, the companies that provide Cellular 
Telephone service are keeping a close eye on this new development.  
In fact they are beginning to put their own similar plans into 
place.  Many of the Regional Bell Operating Companies, the local 
telephone companies created by the breakup of the AT&T system, 
have their hands in the Cellular business.
     But even though Cellular Phones use a radio-based technology, 
it is still an analog system, much like our current phone 
networks.  Just as the wire based services will need to rebuild 
their networks for ISDN, the Cellular based companies will need to 
rebuild their networks in order to provide voice and data 
simultaneously, which the new radio technology is being designed 
to do from the ground up.
     One of the major concerns about wireless networks is 
security.  Because of the nature of radio there will likely be 
some leakage of signal that can be intercepted more easily than 
with a wired network. Someone could tap into the network and steal 
vital information or crash the system.  This is a problem that 
needs to be addressed in conjunction with development of radio- 
based technology.
     Some wireless Local Area Networks exist today.  These 
wireless networks use infrared signals bounced from mirrors on the 
server and clients and at vantage points throughout the network.  
This LAN technology hasn't become very widespread because they 
inherit the problems of both wired and unwired LANs.  The infrared 
networks are also very costly.
     At the AT&T Labs, though, some breakthrough work is being 
done that won't have any impact on personal computing in the near 
future, much less on telecommunications.  But if successful, it 
could be one of the most revolutionary developments in our 
lifetimes.  Scientists are working on a computer that has no 
chips, no circuit boards and no moving parts.  All the processing 
is done using lasers, lenses and mirrors.
     This Optical Computer is in the early stages of development. 
One of the advantages of this type of system is that the laser 
pulses can intersect with each other without causing a loss of 
data in either one.  The developers are projecting that at some 
time these machines could move data at a rate of one terabit a 
second.
     If these claims for the Optical Computer hold true then wired 
networks and radio-based networks will more than likely become 
quaint exhibits in a museum like the hand-cranked phone.

NEXT:  THE INNOCENT VICTIMS

                                  (c) Copyright 1992 Robert Parson