ISDN IN JAPAN - ACTORS, STATUS AND EXPECTATIONS

This article is concerned with the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) in Japan. It sketches the actors involved in ISDN networks and services and gives an account of their history, current status and re alistic expectations, ISDN is developing steadily in Japan but at a pa ce that is confounding high initial expectations, The main impeding fa ctors are the high investments with uncertain returns demanded from th e privatized telecommunications industry, low interconnectivity and hi gh prices of equipment, and competition from other technologies, media and services, ISDN is no longer considered as a goal in itself, but a s a step to a fully digital multimedia infrastructure.