Competitive tariffs have pushed Germany and France to the forefront of Integrated Services Digital Network use in Europe, according to a recent Dataquest Europe report. In Germany, Basic Rate ISDN connections reached a milestone 100,000 at the end of August, while sales of Primary Rate connections totalled 9,000. Pascal Meriaux, marketing manager for France Telecom’s ISDN service, Numeris, said in a recent presentation that France Telecom topped its 1992 target of signing 300,000 B-channel ISDN customers in August by 20%. According to Kathy Burrows, industry analyst at Dataquest Europe, take-up in Germany and France has been strong because In these countries, ISDN has been tariffed attractively and the public telephone operators have worked with customers and data communications suppliers to develop ISDN applications, with the majority of users of Basic Rate ISDN in France and Germany using it for file transfer. In comparison, the UK ISDN terminal adaptor market was small in 1991 and sales of ISDN adaptors are only now starting to take off. The European ISDN terminal adaptor market reached an estimated $79m in 1991 and is forecast to grow to $270m by 1996. According to the report, approximately 80,000 Basic Rate ISDN lines were in use in Europe by the end of 1991, a number that is forecast to grow to over 1m lines by 1995. Sales of Primary Rate ISDN connections totalled 13,000 in 1991 and are forecast to grow to 77,000 by 1995. However, indications show that ISDN penetration is still substantially less than 1% of public switched telephone network lines in Europe, says Ms Burrows. This falls far short of the objectives set by the European Community. Public telephone operators were set a target of providing ISDN access for 5% of main subscriber lines by the end of 1993. The introduction of pan-European ISDN standards is expected to boost the ISDN equipment market from 1993 onwards, declares Ms Burrows. ISDN applications are expected to be plentiful in 1996, opening up new markets. For ISDN to be successful in other European countries, the public telephone operators will have to ensure that ISDN tariffs are competitive and will need to be more aggressive in ISDN marketing.
