BT have recently been
aggressively advertising their ISDN service, even reducing the
subscription cost by half, so I thought I'd have a look and describe the
technology and costs involved.
The service BT is advertising is BT Highway and there exists two differing
subscriptions, Home Highway and Business Highway. The names are
descriptive enough but the differences come in three areas: Price and
discounts, service / functionality. With Home Highway, you can have the
residential discounts (Friends & Family, PremierLine, etc) whereas
Business Highway lines attract the business discounts and Billing options
(Business Choices, OneBill, etc), also the levels of support differ.
What Is a Modem?
That's enough of the differences; I'll now concentrate on the technology
and pay particular attention to Home Highway. Currently you're probably
connecting to the Internet using a Modem. A Modem is basically a
conversion machine, it stands for Modulator-DeModulatar and accepts
digital data from your PC, converts it to Analogue for transmission along
the copper cable, and is subsequently converted back to digital at the
Exchange. Obviously a slow process and with most Modems being sold now
advertising speeds of 56Kbps (KiloBits Per Second) which you'll be
extremely lucky to reach, my experience is that you'll average 40Kbps.
BT Highway on the other hand is a technology that is purely
digital straight from your PC to the Exchange and can convert your
existing telephone into two digital lines, with a possible 128Kbps. But
what does this mean in real terms?
It means that with Home Highway you will have two digital
lines each supplying 64Kbps transmission. You could possibly use one for
your existing analogue calls, telephone and FAX, keeping your old
equipment, and the other for digital data, the Internet/Email, Video
Conferencing, etc. Or you could use them both for digital transmission at
128Kbps, but be warned: Using the lines this way will result in a charge
for two calls, although BT states that you will not be online as long
because you are transmitting at twice the rate.
Is It Compatible?
OK, but what do I need and is it compatible with my existing
hardware/software? BT state that most Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
support Home Highway at 64kbps/128kbps for no extra charge, including many
of the new 'free' providers - although they also state to check first with
your existing ISP. Hardware and Software is another
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matter, so be prepared to splash out some dosh.
To take advantage of Home Highway or Business Highway you'll have to
replace your Modem with a Terminal Adapter (TA) or an ISDN Card that
supports 64kbps/128kbps access.
BT's recommended TA is the Hayes ACCURA ISDN Terminal Adaptor
at £199 inc, whilst BT recommend two ISDN Cards. Funnily enough, the
first is BT's Speedway ISDN PCI Card at £49.99 inc. and the second is
Edge Technologies Tipac 128 PCI at £49.99 inc. If I were to opt for the
ISDN Card and knowing BT, I'd purchase their Speedway Card because I'm
sure it would be 'pass the buck' if you had problems with installation or
connection.
But what are the overall costs involved? At the moment BT are
reducing the conversion cost of your old line to Home Highway by 50% to
£57.58 Inc, this offer ends on 31st October 1999. There are two
subscription plans, Call Inclusive Plan or Standard Plan.
Call Inclusive Plan:
Conversion costs just £57.58 (instead of £116.33) if you want to
convert an existing BT line to Home Highway. A new connection costs just
£175.08 (instead of £233.83) if you want a new BT line with Home Highway
Monthly rental is £40 and includes £15 of calls. This
includes Lo-call 0345, 0645 and 0845 numbers used by most Internet Service
Providers. Standard Plan:
Conversion costs just £116.33 (instead of £175.08) if you want to
convert an existing BT line to Home Highway. A new connection costs just
£233.83 (instead of £292.58) if you want a new BT line with Home
Highway. Monthly rental is £27 but this includes no calls.
The advantages of BT Highway are obvious, faster connections,
uploads/downloads, the ability for bandwidth hungry applications like
video-conferencing, two lines replacing the original one, voice and data
at the same time.
Disadvantages? Once again obvious - the cost. You'll have to
discard your current Modem and replace it with a TA or ISDN card, together
with a much greater rental charge. Will I get BT Highway? I doubt it! Even
though I spend quite a bit of time on the Net, I find 40Kbps quite
acceptable at the moment and the extortionate monthly charges are just not
worth it and in my humble opinion, BT are seriously restricting the uptake
of ISDN in the UK with its monopolistic charges.
Home Highway: http://www.homehighway.bt.com
Business Highway: http://www.businesshighway.bt.com
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