ISDN Internet access is gaining popularity with SOHO's workers and teleworkers. In previous months ISDN and the Internet were examined as separate topics. This article will address how ISDN Internet access can increase the productivity and effectiveness of a SOHO worker or a teleworker.
The Fall 1995 edition of Telework International included two articles describing technical aspects of ISDN and some examples of teleworkers utilizing ISDN. "ISDN: Teleworking, not Telewaiting" explained the difference between a digital ISDN telephone line and a regular analog telephone line. "ISDN Business Solutions" gave examples of teleworkers using ISDN because of its speed and ability to simultaneously conduct voice and data communications.
The benefits of Internet access for SOHO workers and teleworkers were described in the Winter 1996 edition, "Internet and Telework". E-mail expands your reach and market while eliminating fax and voice long distance charges. E-mail attachments and file transfers are faster and more reliable than couriers. In addition the WWW is an ever expanding research and marketing resource.
ISDN Internet access works because ISDN is widely available, extremely flexible and if properly configured provides more bandwidth than most users require. To demonstrate this point I will describe a few examples from our customers in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia.
Dwight owns a small pre-press shop operating in North Vancouver. He prepares electronic files for output to film and other medium. A year ago he realized that an Internet account would let his customers send files electronically instead of delivering a diskette to his office. "I knew right away that we needed the speed of a 128Kbps ISDN line", said Dwight. "We cannot afford to tie up resources waiting around for files or chance corruption during the transmission. Plus, our router gives 4:1 compression. We just plugged it into our LAN and each workstation now flies at 500
Kbps. Besides some new long distance clients we are even getting more local jobs from Vancouver now that customers can send us work without having to cross the Lion's Gate Bridge." (a major traffic congestion point in Vancouver)
Bob is in sales and works from home in Port Coquitlam several days a week. When customers call, he uses the Internet to check his supplier pricing before giving a sales quote. Bob says, "I used to log-in every time somebody called but I found it too frustrating waiting the 30 seconds or
more it took each time for my modem to negotiate the connection. I would have kept my line up all the time except my Internet Service Provider (ISP) did not allow line camping. So, I changed to ISDN and the connection is so fast it seems that I am always on line. Plus, my usage has fallen dramatically because the line automatically disconnects when there is no activity."
Bob was also concerned about keeping his costs down so he canceled his fax line and connected his fax machine to his ISDN line. "For an extra $100", said Bob, "I was able to get a router that let me use a regular telephone, fax machine or modem with one of the ISDN channels. I can be surfing the net at 128Kbps using both channels of the ISDN line and a fax comes in, my router automatically drops one channel to let the fax come through on the second channel and re-establishes the 128Kbps connection when the fax is finished. It is pretty cool and I understand that sometimes you can transfer your old fax number to your new ISDN line."
Dennis is the system administrator for a small Richmond company and is responsible for their web site. "We needed our own web server because we wanted to try some applications that our ISP could not support. Controlling our own server also meant we could decide on our own CGI scripts. The most economical solution was to connect our web server to an ISDN line. The line automatically comes up when someone visits our site and it disconnects when they leave. Our site is mainly visited by customers and employees so 128Kbps is certainly enough bandwidth. We even use the same ISDN line to give our employees Internet access. Soon we will move over to our own server".
These examples and others from SOHO's and teleworkers demonstrate the business value achieved by effectively combining ISDN and the Internet. ISDN is now the technology of choice for digital communications and Internet access by these innovative businesses. Demand for ISDN Internet access is rising as new applications develop and the cost of ISDN equipment falls. Increasingly, companies are offering easy and affordable products meeting the needs of SOHO's and Teleworkers.
CONTACT:
Bill Campbell
SOHO Skyway
Phone: (604) 482-1222
e-mail: bcampbell@SOHOskyway.net
web: http://www.SOHOskyway.net
Bill Campbell is responsible for the marketing and operations of SOHO Skyway. He has more than nine years of telecommunications general management experience specializing in ISDN Internet access for the past two years. SOHO Skyway is committed to delivering easy and affordable ISDN Internet access to teleworkers and small to medium sized business.
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