!! spellx done
155   The Phone Revolution
      The Washington Post   June 14, 1969

     "The old idea of the phone is dead... see that black instrument
on his desk?  He thinks that's a telephone.  But it's much more.  It's
an input device to the largest information network in the world".

     These advertising lines announce the Bell System's part in the
communications revolution -- moving data for computers over the system
originally developed for voice messages.

     The phone system has many intricate parts, linked in the most
complex of our technological nets.  We see the handset, which is at
once a network signalling device (the dial mechanism) and a microphone
and speaker; terminal distribution lines lead to the central stations,
which contain electronic switchwork to connect the calls and handle
the accounting; finally there are the long lines or their equivalent
in microwave relays, which now include the communications satellites.

     As the main custodian of the switching systems, Bell has been
accustomed to the responsibility of managing the entire line of
service.  This also excluded competitors who offered more ingenious
or merely cheaper kinds of handsets, message-takers, or computer
interfaces.  But communication links from home or office are becoming
the real bottleneck to universal access to computers.

     The economics of a "computer utility" suggest that the cost of the
computer itself will be insignificant compared to the connecting
console (like an electronic typewriter or display screen), the user's
memory file at the computer and the communication links: the living
phone.  How such facilities are expanded and controlled is one of the
most important issues for the future.

    The issue finally erupted last year in the Carterfone case, in
which Bell was sued for illegally squelching direct attachment of a
radio retransmission invention to a standard telephone.  The official
tariffs had excluded all "foreign attachments", but the Federal
Communications Commission finally reversed this except where spurious
signals might affect the electronic switching.

     The new tariffs, now provisionally approved, allow direct
connection of such attachments, provided the messages are fed through
a simple company device to protect its lines.  The firm insisted,
however, that only its own dialing unit be used.

     This provision drew a strong dissent from FCC Commissioner
Nicholas Johnson, who demanded that consumers' interests be
represented by a formal hearing on the tariffs.  Potential competitors
and the Department of Defense (representing government users
generally) have also complained at being barred from replacing
mechanical dialing by computer-generated signals.

     The complainants also seek the right to feed their own local
switchboards directly into the lines.

     Direct entry of user data into phone lines is also generating
new demands for standardizing their quality.  The company has never
precisely defined the service it sells, except as the right to connect
with "voice grade" lines.  Many long distance lines are barely
intelligible at times.

     This is not quite good enough for computer connections, where
hours of work could be faulted by a fraction of a second of unexpected
noise.  A good voice line, in theory, should be able to transmit about
300 characters a second accurately.  Actual equipment is beginning to
press these standards.

     The most exciting prospects for ordinary users from computer
connections might be a selective answering service, which could free
thousands of secretaries for more meaningful work and bring to the
home telephone a joyful silence.
---------------------------------------------------------------------