Introduction

ISDN offers you overall faster and much more reliable connection then traditional analog telephone lines (POTS).  It involves the digitalization of the telephone network, which permits voice, data, text, graphics, music, video, and other source material to be transmitted over existing telephone with significantly lower error rate and provide higher transmission reliability and data consistency.  Applications of ISDN may include high-speed image applications (i.e., Group IV facsimile), additional telephone lines in homes to serve the Telco industry, high-speed data transfer, and video conferencing.  

ISDN service usually requires user with minimum proficiency in area of data networking and fundamental knowledge of computer hardware.  Novice user is advised consult our sales / technical department.  Customer found lack of technical proficiency is encouraged to bring in their system and have our technician pre-configure their equipment to avoid technical difficulties. 

Should you wish to obtain some additional knowledge prior to ordering ISDN services, please visit our ISDN Introductory page for detail. 

General Information

Currently, Killeen only offers dual-B channel ISDN service, hence it is not possible to obtain true BRI (Basic Rate Interface) service, which can often be found else where in Texas (usu. SWB region,  rated @128Kbps).  This is due to Sprint / Centel switch type, since they do not yet properly encapsulate D-Channel Layer 3 Protocol (device channel) (See Table 1-2), which is required to establish a true 128Kbps service.  A sw-56 circuit provided by sprint requires minimum level of line quality, and therefore drives down the cost for Sprint to install their BRI lines (although ISDN cost is Sprint/Centel region is ridiculously high) .  As result, basic ISDN services in Killeen may only go up to 112Kbps. A next high level of service (which is currently offered in Killeen) would be PRI (Primary Rate Interface), which is composed of 23B+1D.  This type of ISDN yield a total bit rate of 1.544Mbps, which is equivalent to DS1.  Overall Cost for PRI is often 20 .. 35% higher then Dedicated DS1 (T1) service in Killeen, and installation fee is often twice the price (Sprint/Centel).

When ordering your ISDN service, be sure to order basic rate interface (BRI) from sprint/centel.

This is brief look at ISDN, which discuss the Network Layer (Layer 3) and Physical Layer (Layer 1).  Layer 2 of the ISDN signaling protocol is Link Access Procedure, D channel (LAPD). LAPD is similar to High-Level Data Link Control (HDLC) and Link Access Procedure, Balanced (LAPB).  As the expansion of the LAPD acronym indicates, this layer it is used across the D channel to ensure that control and signaling information flows and is received properly. The LAPD frame format is very similar to that of HDLC and, like HDLC, LAPD uses supervisory, information, and unnumbered frames. The LAPD protocol is formally specified in ITU-T Q.920 and ITU-T Q.921. 

Cost Structure and Circuit Provisioning Policy

Some fees such as ISDN-Line installation fee, wiring charges, and monthly ISDN service charge are incurred via your local telephone company.  These charges are provided at your convenience.

Customer who wish to connect to ISOT and want us to provide them with a static route via ISDN router should consult our sales department to establish consulting sessions if customer felt they are not familiar with equipment configuration.  Generally, configuration are best supported on most Ascend Pipeline routers and Cisco Access Routers.  We encourage customers to use those equipment on their end for maximum reliability and scalability.  On-site configuration and class instruction maybe only given to Business ISDN customers. 

At ISOT, we believe to disclose all related cost to the customers and allow customers to make informed decisions. Table 1-3 illustrates typical connection cost for ISDN that is not controlled by ISOT.

Residential ISDN Services

Residential ISDN services is targeted for personal or home-business users only.  Very often these service only require user to have internal ISDN modem installed onto their system.  Although dedicated router maybe used for Premium ISDN customers, it is often not required unless customer wish to provide multiple computers with internet access for small home-business use.

Table 1-4 Illustrates various ISDN product we offer for residential customers.  Those fees are in addition to your ISDN phone bill which is billed thru Sprint/Centel at a monthly basis. ISOT DO NOT charge any setup / activation fees for residential or business ISDN services.

Commercial ISDN Services

Commercial ISDN is designed to service medium to large businesses which requires non-interrupted, reliable, and generally permanent connection to internet via single or multiple ISDN circuit.  Commercial ISDN usually is the economical alternative for having a dedicated T1 or switched 56 services, due to reduced installation and overall equipment investment.

A router is often required to form an dedicated connection between your LAN to the internet.  This permit businesses to connect all their workstations and servers to the internet, and even place firewall for additional security by establishing filtering rules within their routing equipment. This service is covered under Premium Business ISDN Service. 

Customer can park their DNS at ns1.isot.com and ns2.isot.com and allow ISOT to manage their domain name services (DNS), or we can assist customers to register the DNS at a cost of $100.00 (non-refundable).  This fee is good for 2 year, and after this period, customer should receive billing notification via mail, which is generated thru InterNIC.

Although ISOT can maintain your DNS requirement, we also permit businesses to run their own DNS server, Email Server and Web Server at customer location if they choose to do so.  Some standard services for Commercial Premium ISDN customers are -

• Virtual E-Mail, FTP, WWW (using standard FTP or FrontPage 98/2000 extension)
• Search Engine registration
• Business listing
• Customer access-router configuration
• DNS hosting (forward, and reverse) / delegation
• IP Firewall Options / Filtering Options
• Network status monitoring / Traffic reporting (if your router supports SNMP)
• SSL Enabled Web commerce with CGI capabilities, accessible via Telnet or SSH / SSH2

* Note (Please read): 

• Additional Email boxes (for Non-Business customers) are restricted to the same household
• All dialup account are guaranteed for 99% non-Busy signal policy
• Installation CDs are free provided customer can only borrow CD software package for period of 30 days.  User must return CD and waits for additional 30 days if he/she desires to borrow CD for purpose of updating existing installation software. Exception will be made to user which may experience technical difficulties with their system. New CD update with 100s of internet applications are available every 50 days to update you with the latest internet software
• Account (Dialup) login name maybe up to 15 characters, E-Mail account name maybe up to 32 characters
• No Account Activation / Account Setup Fees
• All Modem pools are Ascend / 3COM digital, 56K / V.90 compliant (56Kbps is the ideal connection speed, you're connection speed may very depends on overall line condition, modem model, CPU performance (for Win modems), and system software integrity)
• Unlimited Internet Access
• Free Technical Support (Account information is needed, i.e., login/password & day-time phone #)