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Top:Computers and Internet:Internet:My Connection:ISDN:Telephone Company
The Short Scoop The Details I had a remarkably good experience getting my ISDN Single Line Service (ISDN BRI) installed. Installation was $110, and monthly service runs $69 plus $6 tax. This includes 200 outbound B channel-hours. A channel-hour is one hour of time on one B channel. So, if you're always using both B channels, that equals 100 real hours per month. B channel hours are counted in one-minute increments, so beware of lots of 15-second connects. Outbound hours beyond your allotment run $.03/minute if you're within your local calling area and $.05/minute if you are calling outside your local calling area. Inbound calls are unmetered (i.e. all you can eat). Be careful of where your ISP has his POP. If your ISP is in a surrounding community (i.e. not the same city in your mailing address), chances are good that they are not in your local calling area, even though they are not a long distance phone call for you. This is almost assuredly going to be the case if your ISP uses a different local phone company (e.g. GTE). Most US West cities have Extended Area Service that allows you to call outlying areas (or vice versa) as a local phone call. However, for ISDN purposes, those exchanges that are EAS exchanges get billed at the higher $.05/minute rate after you use your alotment, even though they are a "local" phone call. However, calls to EAS exchanges over ISDN are still not considered long distance. I hope that makes sense.... If you use a terminal adapter that supports Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation (like the P75), you will definitely save money because you only use the second channel when you need it (which is a surprisingly small percentage of the time, I have found). In case you're wondering about how real long distance calls are billed, they are billed just like your regular phone. Call your long distance carrier and tell them the phone numbers to sign up. That's it. Long distance over ISDN costs the same as over analog, but the quality is much better. You will no doubt hear many horror stories about US West and ISDN service. The only difficulties I had were in trying to get my line provisioning changed (I changed my mind on what TA I was going to use after I had placed the order with US West). It took them about two weeks to get ISDN service dropped to my house. Not too bad, really. Calling US West with questions or problems can certainly be entertaining if you have residential ISDN service. Residential ISDN service is in a grey area between the business and residential divisions (to their credit, this is at least partly due to the Public Utilities Commission). So, often I have ended up talking with several different people (seven, one time) before getting to the person who could help me. I discovered that it is immensely useful to let the person you're talking to know that you are calling about ISDN service in your home, not in the office. Your best friend at the US West will be your home office consultant. To order ISDN service for your home, start by calling the US West Home Office Consulting Center listed on about page 5 of your US West phone book. Once you are assigned to someone, keep their name, number, and extension in a safe place. You will probably be talking to them frequently for a few days. They can also act as a resource for putting you in touch with other people at the phone company (like calling the correct repair center when you have troubles). Kudos Equipment - Equipment
Vendor - Internet Service Provider Page created 2/18/97 by twisted@teleport.com.
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