[plug] DoV and ISDN lines (was: school web page)

[Leon Brooks]

On Wed, 7 Aug 2002 15:04, Craig Ringer wrote:
> Quick question: if I was to get 64k DoV ISDN put in on a new line into
> the house, would it then be possible to w/o adding another line go to
> 128k later?

Telstra's OnRamp Home Highway splits an existing line into two digital lines. 
The combination costs slightly less than two analogue lines to run and they 
throw in $5 of free calls.

Each line can be one ISDN B-channel or one analogue channel (any mix of the 
above works, f/e I have a modem on one line and DoV/ISDN uplink on the 
other), so a possible approach would be to split your existing single line 
and use half for internet, then later acquire a separate line for your voice 
calls and use the second half of the ORHH for internet.

DoV essentially places a voice call and then runs ISDN over the channel. There 
is absolutely no equipment difference between an ISDN call and an analog 
call, end to end. Which shows that Telstra have been ripping people off 
savagely for plain ISDN services for a very long time now, and that ISPs 
charging extra for DoV calls appear to only have the excuse of extra data 
useage for that fee. Comment from people at ISPs on this topic is most 
welcome. (-:

The down-side is that you don't get anything back for reverting, and the 
digital lines are incompatible with ADSL, should you later go that way.

I got the OnRamp some time ago, and have used it for testing ISDN and DoV 
installations before actually employing half of it as an uplink recently. You 
get better (faster, more reliable) modem connections on it than on a normal 
line, because the only truly analog part of the call is the meter or so of 
copper between the modem and the grey box on the wall.

> Aahhh, uncapped high-speed service....

High speed is relative. Three workplaces have 1.5Mb ADSL, another has 2Mb 
(each way) fibre, and I visit an 8Mb fibre pipe once a month to wallow in the 
spray of fast, free bytes. (-:

Cheers; Leon