What is Metropolitan DDS?
A Telecom NZ service :-(MDDS services in New Zealand are currently only provided by Telecom NZ.
Initially only 9.6Kbit and 48Kbit services were available up until early 1995. 64Kbit and 128Kbit services were made available from mid 1995 and the 19.2K MDDS service was promised by the end of 1995.
MDDS is available in the following areas.
Auckland
Wellington
Christchurch
Hamilton
Dunedin
Tauranga
Palmerston North
MDDS is a dependable digital service with relatively low priced (when compared to standard DDS) and is ideally suited for full time connections to the Internet in New Zealand.
What does it cost?
Installation is $410 per end of the MDDS link - $820 total Same installation cost for all speeds of MDDS.MDDS rental consists of an access charge per end of the link There are no ongoing time related charges, no per minute rental charges or link distance charges. Thbe MDDS can be fully utilised or just move minimum data volumes and the cost is the same.
9.6Kbit is $150 per end, total rental is $300 per monthMDDS prices for the faster 64K and 128K speeds are rumoured to be reducing in Mid 1996 so exact pricing should be obtained from Telecom.
Ordering an MDDS link
These can be obtained from the nearest Telecom Business Centre or Sales office and they will post original copies to you or fax them directly.
The application consists of four pages.
Page 1. General Company information and billing addresses
Pages 2 and 3. The site drop information, address, contact people, location
in building where MDDS is to be terminated. There is one page for each end
of the MDDS link. You will have to contact your Internet Service Provider
to get the exact details to complete for their end of your MDDS link.
Some service providers prefer to complete the whole document as it makes
sure there are no delays due to incorrect or missing answers.
Page 4. DDS interface type and control signal options. The options here
for interface type depend on the DDS speed. For 9K6 and below an asynchronous
v24 interface or an X21bis synchronous interface is available.
48K and above are available only as synchronous serial with either X21 or v35
interface.
Equipment shortages seem to be a recurring problem that cause delays with MDDS installation. At different times there can be shortages of the NTU 2 then when these are in plentiful supply there are no control cards available to install in the exchange. Sometimes a delay may occur because a card frame needs to be installed at the exchange.
MDDS installation
Just about all MDDS installations are now carried out by Installation companies that contract to Telecom. The good news is that the actual people who do the installations are usually ex-Telecom staff and they tend to know what they are doing. The same person will often install both ends of an MDDS and will phone the contact people (as included in the application site forms) to arrange a mutually suitable time to call and do the site installation.
MDDS requires a single copper line pair. It cannot be installed on a line used for 1+1 or other multiplexing schemes for providing more than one analogue (phone) service over a copper pair.
An MDDS link is terminated at each end in a modem-like box known as an
Network Terminator Unit or NTU.
For 9k6 and 48K mdds installations the NTU can either be an older type made
by Telettra, usually with a brown plastic case and black front panel, or the
newer NTU2 in a grey plastic case.
64K and 128K MDDS use a fairly large cased NTU made by Open Technology
connection using MDDSconnection using MDDS
All NTUs require a 240v AC mains power outlet. Power consumption for the
older Telettra NTUs is about 40 Watts, the newer NTU2 is about 10 Watts
and the Open Technology NTUs need about 20 Watts.
The lower power NTU2 can be stacked. Telettra NTUs will overheat if stacked.
Both types are able to have two beside each other on a standard 19inch
rack frame shelf.
The larger Open Technology type NTU cannot be stacked due to its wedge
shape, nor will it fit beside other NTUs in a rack frame. It requires
its own rack frame shelf and is a general pain to deal with. Telecom
have no plans to provide a more rack-frame, shelf-space or desktop
friendly 64k/128k MDDS NTU.
Internet connection using MDDS
MDDS is the lowest cost Digital Data link option in the main centres where
MDDS is available.
Compared to DDS there are significant savings when using MDDS as the only
rental for a point to point MDDS is the access fee for each end of the link.
There is no transmission fee.
The most popular MDDS connection is the 48Kbit service.
Until mid 1995 there were only two MDDS options available, the 9K6 and 48K
option. The 48K cost $450 per month.
In a review of prices Telecom announced overall price reductions in DDS
and MDDS services in June 1995. Part of these reductions was an INCREASE
in the price of 48K MDDS, from $450 to $550 per month.
The only reason Telecom had to offer for this increase was a repositioning
of the prices to even out the steps between 9K6, 48K and 64Kbit MDDS
links. Due to the obvious annoyance from many existing 48K MDDS users
the price increase for existing users was phased in over 6 months
All new 48K MDDS were immediately charged at the higher prices.
Data Compression can significantly increase the throughput over an MDDS although this requires router hardware at each end of the MDDS with sufficient grunt/memory.
Connecting MDDS to an Internet network.
The exact type of connection will depend on the interface provided (or
requested) on the NTU. The slower 9k6 NTU with its async interface can be
directly connected to an async port on a PC or workstation. This workstation
will probably need to be running routing software, most Unix OS will
include routing, and other OS such as OS/2, MacOS, Windows NT etc usually
have routing capability either built in or by installing additional
modules.
Synchronous MDDS links will require a router or computer interface that
supports synchronous serial connections.
Usually an external ethernet (or token ring) router box is used to manage
a synchronous MDDS link. This often turns out to be the single most expensive
hardware required to connect an MDDS.
Such routers will totally manage an Internet connection providing the
required sync serial port interface (usually X21). They also include full
routing capability, provide internet routing management and may often
include limited firewall capability.