ISDN Devices

Some time ago, ISDN was sarcastically known as It Still Does

Nothing. Well, the perception will have to change now because it’s entered the

corporate communications market with a big bang. DoT and MTNL offer ISDN at very

competitive rates. All the national ISPs offer ISDN gateways. We’ve introduced

this category in our survey this year, and looking at its growing popularity, we’ll

definitely see more of it in future.

Devices for ISDN connectivity are also widely available from

a lot of vendors. Of these, D-Link appears to be the preferred choice for ISDN

connectivity. It has a wide range of networking and communications products, and

availability isn’t an issue either. In fact, availability wasn’t an issue

with any other ISDN device too.

Coming to the next most preferred brand, GVC has made a mark

here. But it shares this place with Motorola. US Robotics was the favorite among

PSTN modems last year, and has managed to remain in this category at number

four.

Interestingly, the scene on current usage of ISDN devices is

exactly the opposite of future preferences. Out of currently-owned ISDN devices,

Motorola was reported to be the highest, followed by US Robotics. Even more

interesting was the fact that D-Link received the lowest votes for current

usage. Looking at these results, it appears that mindshare is shifting towards

D-Link followed by GVC. This may be because of competitive pricing.

For those still using the old hardware gateways with three

modems, ISDN could be a viable choice. First of all, instead of three telephone

lines, you get one ISDN line. Plus, ISDN has many other benefits, such as better

bandwidth, faster and more stable connects, and negligible disconnects. Taking

these into account, ISDN would actually turn out cheaper than plain dial-up

connectivity.