Hayes Microcomputer Products PC Card - Manual (Page 5)

DIVA T/A PC Card Reference Guide 5
"Network" refers to the fact that ISDN is not simply a point-to-point
solution like a leased line. ISDN networks extend from the local
telephone exchange to the remote user and include all of the
telecommunications and switching equipment in between. When you
have ISDN, you can make connections throughout the world to other
ISDN equipment. If your ISDN equipment includes analog
capabilities, you can also connect to analog modems, fax machines,
and telephones, even though they may be connected to plain old
telephone service.
Benefits
While ISDN accommodates telephones and fax machines, its most
popular advantage is in computer applications. You can plug an ISDN
adapter into a phone jack, like you would an analog modem, and get a
much faster connection with no "line noise."
The most common ISDN service, Basic Rate Interface (BRI),
provides two 64 Kbps channels per line. When the two channels are
bonded in a single connection, you get a speed of 128 Kbps, which is
about four times the actual top speed of the fastest analog modems.
Compression can increase throughput to around 250 Kbps.
Telecommuters, for example, benefit immensely from ISDN. Whether
you access the corporate LAN in the evenings or maintain a full-time,
remote home office, ISDN is the next best thing to being there. E-
mail, database access, and file transfers improve dramatically, making
it seem like you're locally attached to the LAN.
Internet access is another great application for ISDN. Compared with
even the fastest modem access, ISDN makes Web graphics appear
almost immediately, and can reduce download times by over 75%.
ISDN can even provide advantages over shared, higher-bandwidth
office connections; PC Magazine advises that an ISDN connection
can deliver better performance than a T1 shared among users on a
LAN. And in many markets, it's actually cheaper than an isolated
analog business line.
Such large-scale file transfer applications as medical imaging,
insurance and law enforcement imaging, and the preparation of
printed materials are additional arenas where ISDN proves highly
beneficial. With the dramatic reduction in file transfer time, ISDN
makes even multi-megabyte files available to recipients within
minutes, not hours.
Videoconferencing is an ISDN application that's growing fast in
popularity, and ISDN is currently the only way of making it happen.