🚀 go-pugleaf

In sac.general Mantra <e_account1@yahoo.com> wrote:
: I am thinking about getting PacBell ISDN when I move.  DSL is not available
: at that location because it is too far from the CO and cable modems are not
: going there either because the apartment complex will have a private cable
: company.

Go to http://www.concentricdsl.com to see if IDSL might still be an
option for you.  IDSL has roughly the same distance limitations as ISDN
does and does not need to be "pure copper" in the loop like ADSL/SDSL
needs to be.  It's also truly flat-rate, unlike PacBell's residential
ISDN.  

: With ISDN do you also need a second phone line if you need to use an analog
: modem in the same PC to send faxes or connect to other computers via a
: modem?

Nope.  You can use 1 or both B channels for analog. 

: I intend to have the ISDN line be my only line and also use it for all my
: voice calls.  Are voice calls more expensive on an ISDN line? Are there
: rates for all the extra services like call forwarding,  call return,
: directiry assistance etc.  the same for ISDN as it is for regular analog
: residential service?  If I make a long distance call using AT&T or a 10-10
: service, do these minutes on the phone get billed or counted by PacBell ISDN
: also?

I don't know this for certain, but I don't think analog service is charged
as though you are using B channel hours.  I contemplated getting an ISDN
line at one time, working under the assumption that I might be able to
bypass the B-channel hours limitations PacBell has and bond 2 56K analog
modems using the ISDN B-channels.  

: How well does PacBell's ISDN service and ISP service work?
: Their rates are about $33 per month for 200 hours of evening and weekend use
: of the line plus $21.95 for unlimited ISP service.  Since I would usually
: only be at home during evenings and weekends anyway, that restriction would
: not usually be a problem.

ISDN service always worked well for me and a friend of mine and I were the
first ISDN customers in Davis years ago (you'll never get 3 switch
technicians on the phone these days to help you setup your ISDN service!).
In other words, I've never had any kind of ISDN service outage in roughly
2 years of using it.  

Can't comment on PBI's dialup ISDN service.  I can say they're only fair
as a backbone ISP though better overall since they switched away from
AGIS, who had absolutely the crappiest backbone in the known universe.  I
think they use multiple IP backbone carriers for their consumer ISP
service though.  Their NNTP/RP service is absolutely horrendous so don't
expect a good news server (why in 2+ years of constant complaining they
haven't fixed this is totally beyond me).  
-- 
Jim Antoniou (boethius@mother.com)