Billing for ISDN packet services-light at the end of the tunnel?

The author describes the progress made in developing ISDN (integrated services digital network) packet services and the billing issues which need to be addressed by the operating companies before the full potential of these services can be realized. It is pointed out that the utilities which carry information between the subnetworks are in place, are well defined, and can be utilized for new services. Because of the explosion of LAN (local area network) services in the past years, corporations are asking for solutions to interconnect their LANs. This is a new challenge to ISDN interconnecting, billing and managing LAN connections with central-office-based ISDN. The existing BOC (Bell Operating Company) utilities, in particular the access characteristics utility, have the potential to identify provided LAN services such as LAN service with/without address conversion