KYIV – Representatives from over 140 Ukrainian and foreign companies got a glimpse of the future Tuesday Oct. 6, as telecoms company Utel hosted a seminar to display the power of the Integrated Systems Digital Network (ISDN) data transmission standard.
Video conferencing, document transmission, and high-speed data links were just three of the applications demonstrated by ISDN equipment and service providers, including Siemens, Lucent Technologies and Kvazar Mikro, in an effort to drum up business.
ISDN, an encoding system used in the West for almost a decade for the rapid transfer of audio, video, graphic and other types of data, has only been available in Ukraine since December 1996, when Utel began to offer services. 'The arrival of ISDN in Ukraine is a major opportunity for businesses,' said John Lough, a member of the European ISDN Users Forum, an agency that serves as a medium for communication between service providers and users. 'It [signifies] the beginning of an information revolution, and helps to bring work to people.'
So far only a few dozen of Utel's 5,500 corporate clients have taken advantage of the new technology, which Utel officials acknowledged is still unfamiliar to most Ukrainian firms. All the same, seminar organizers and participants agreed that interest in the standard is growing rapidly.
'We were surprised by the number of users who attended the ISDN workshop,' said form director Ronald Leibschter. Apart from the information gap, another factor that has slowed the advance of ISDN in Ukraine is the lack of modern communications infrastructure – the standard requires modern fiber optic cables to carry its high-speed data packets.
Only half of Ukraine's regions are served by communications networks suitable for the ISDN data format. Eastern regions will have to wait up to two years before modern cables are laid, according to officials from the state telecommunications provider Ukrtelekom.
The prices charged for ISDN services in Ukraine could also be cutting down the numbers of users. Just hooking up to the ISDN network costs Utel's clients $1,000, while the monthly charge for the use of network is $50. Moreover, the charges of 30 kopeks per minute for data transfer within Ukraine and $2.50 per minute for links to Western Europe add up to a service beyond the means of many telephone users.
'This type of service is not meant for the general public,' said Utel President Olexiy Marynchuk. 'It is designed for business sector clients, who can actually save money using modern means of communication.'
A growing number of big Ukrainian businesses are ready to pay for the speed ISDN offers. Roman Kozan, chief specialist in credit card servicing at Aval Bank's Lutsk branch, said installing ISDN is the only way his bank can process plastic card transactions quickly. 'It provides really good communication for smaller cities like Lutsk,' he said. 'And although we paid Hr 2,000 for equipment, and have to pay all communication fees, it still saves us [paying for] round-the-clock work from six people.'
He said that by using ISDN, Aval Bank could process individual credit card transactions according to international payment systems in only 30 seconds. Utel's Marynchuk said that although tariffs for ISDN are higher in Ukraine than in some other former Soviet countries, they are roughly comparable to Western European charges.
'Anyway, these rates are experimental,' said Marynchuk. 'If our clients don't buy this type of service, we'll have to cut our prices.'
Nevertheless, Utel hopes that, having seen ISDN in action, many more companies will be willing to pay Western prices for data transfer services.
'We hope that at least 20 percent of our 5,500 clients will start using ISDN by the end of next year,' said Harry Visser, Utel's vice president for business operations.
