US 5,247,347 · Granted 1993-09-21

How Bell Atlantic's 1993 Patent Turned Phone Lines Into Video Highways

Back in 1993, Bell Atlantic patented a clever way to squeeze video signals down the same copper wires that carried your phone calls. By using special technology called ADSL, they could send TV programs to your home over regular telephone lines while still letting you make calls—all at the same time.

Curated and verified by the IsItPatented Editorial team

The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers a system where a telephone company's central office receives video requests from subscribers, establishes a dedicated connection to a video provider, and then sends digital video down standard phone lines using ADSL technology to reach individual homes. What's protected is the combination of using PSTN infrastructure to deliver video-on-demand, multiplexing video and voice signals on the same line, and routing control commands back through an ISDN network to manage which programs subscribers receive.

Why it matters

This patent arrived at a pivotal moment when cable TV dominated but telephone companies wanted a piece of the video delivery business. By proving you could repurpose existing phone infrastructure to compete with cable, it opened a blueprint for telecom companies to enter entertainment. The patent represents an early attempt to converge voice and video services—a battle that shaped broadband competition for decades and eventually enabled DSL internet service.

Real-world use

In the mid-1990s, if you lived in a Bell Atlantic service area with phone lines capable of carrying DSL, you could theoretically order movies or shows through your telephone and watch them on the same connection used for voice calls.

Original USPTO abstract

A public switched telephone network (PSTN) provides digital video signals from a video information provider to one or more of a plurality of subscriber premises. A subscriber uses either a standard telephone instrument over the PSTN or a dedicated control device over an ISDN packet network to order video programming. The request is transmitted to a designated video information provider and digital transmission connectivity is established between the video information provider and the central office serving the subscriber. Connectivity between the central office and subscriber is provided by asymmetrical digital subscriber line interface units over a local loop. The interface units frequency multiplex digital video information with voice information to the subscriber and support transmission of a reverse control channel from the subscriber to the central office for transmission on the ISDN packet data network back to the video information provider. The interfaces also allow base band signalling and audio between the central office and the subscriber for conventional telephone instrument connectivity.

Patent details

Publication number: US 5,247,347
Filing date: 1991-09-27
Grant date: 1993-09-21
Assignee: Bell Atlantic Network Services, Inc.
Inventor(s): LITTERAL; LARRY A., GOLD; JEFFREY B., KLIKA, JR.; DONALD C., KONKLE; DANIEL B., CODDINGTON; CARL D., MCHENRY; JAMES M., RICHARD, III; ARTHUR A.
CPC class: H04N21/47202

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