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Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)

For some time it has been possible to conduct meetings by video with colleagues across town or across the world. Now, with the development of equipment that can exploit the integrated services digital network (ISDN), it is possible to talk to someone by telephone, see a video image of them and share a computer screen. Both parties can amend the screen, even if the applications software is used and only available on one of the computers. This is known as desktop conferencing.

ISDN is highly complex and opens up a whole array of services. Com­puter integrated telephony (CIT), for example, has great implications for telephone banking. It means that banks can use calling line identification (CLI) to access customers banking records before the telephone itself is even answered, saving time and improving customer service.

Fax

Fax machines work by converting text and graphics into a series of elec­tronic pulses. Fax machines transmit these pulses over the telephone lines and reconstruct them into a duplicate or "faximile" of the original at the receiving machine.

Fax is the ideal medium for rapid and informal messaging and it has become an important part of business communications.

Fax has the advantage of speed.

The cost of using fax is difficult to evaluate*. A very short fax can be cheaper than the post.

An alternative to using a standalone* fax machine, is to install a PC-fax card in the back of your PC. This enables you to generate a fax on your computer and send it over the telephone lines without printing it out first and feeding* it into a fax machine.

If you work at a PC and prepared to generate and to send your own faxes, PC-fax is ideal for sending messages to the outside world. A word of warning, however: it is not as good at receiving them.

Companies with computer network* can use electronic mail, or E-mail as it is known, to communicate both internally and with the outside world.

Electronic mail is exactly as it sounds. Instead of writing a letter on paper, addressing it and putting it in the post, you generate it on your PC, give it an electronic destination and send it over your computer network.

Despite the advantages of fax and E-mail, they pale in comparison to the current telecommunications revolution. Telephone and computer technolo­gies* are converging* and change radically the way businesses* communicate, both nationally and internationally.

Notes:

1. evaluate — оценивать, оценить

2. standalone — автономный

3. feed — подавать, вводить в устройство

4. computer network(s) — сеть ЭВМ

5. computer technology — вычислительная техника

6. converge — come together towards a common point

7. businesses = companies

8. media — средства информации и коммуникации

9. competing — конкурирующие