Telecommuting

Today, the world is increasingly connected through computers and the Internet. In this competitive marketplace, many businesses rely on computer communications to access a broad base of information and exchange data quickly. Businesses and their employees can access a vast reservoir of resources available on the Internet. In essence, the Internet has become the focal point for business transactions rather than the company office. Communication through computers and over the Internet creates virtual offices that eliminate the need to physically bring workers together in a central location. As a result, these advances shatter previous conceptions of the work place.

Companies, which traditionally required their employees to commute to one specific location, are encouraging their employees to work from home. As a result of these changing work practices, businesses are seeing positive results. Accessing the company network remotely, these "telecommuters" help lower company overhead and improve worker productivity. To offset the rising cost of commercial real estate, companies have downsized their office space requirements by encouraging their employees to work from home. Furthermore, employers have the advantage of selecting the best workers from across the country, without requiring them to move to the central location. Although employees reside in different cities, states, or countries they can still collaborate on the same project. Modern communication and computer technology has allowed for physical decentralization while maintaining business centralization, since all employees can access data bases, e-mail systems, files, and programs located in one central place. (See Figure 1. Business Centralization)



Working as if they were still in the office, telecommuters perform their same job duties but with greater efficiency. Set apart from activities of the office, they have less distractions which improves overall productivity. Since they can gain from the Internet any time – day or night – they are released from the confines of an eight to five schedule.

Moreover, society as a whole benefits from the rising popularity of telecommuting. Since remote access workers do not need to physically travel to the office, they make an important environmental contribution. According to AT&T surveys, the average worker's round trip commute is 41 miles. One day of telecommuting could save a worker 70 minutes of his day, spare the environment from 43 pounds of pollution, and preserve two gallons of gas.

Telecommuting has been recognized as a successful work practice for employers, workers, and society. In 1992, California's San Francisco Bay Area Air Quality Management District created a trip reduction regulation that required Bay Area employers, with more than 100 workers, to provide incentive programs for ridesharing and commute alternatives. The Air District estimates that 5% or 2,874 tons of automobile emissions had been reduced per year as a result of employers who instituted trip reduction programs. Although the Bay Area Air Quality Management District suspended the trip reduction regulation in 1995, nearly 2,000 employeers planned to continue trip reduction efforts on a volunteer basis.

Telecommuting was first made possible with the advent of the analog modem. Computers could communicate by converting digital information into an analog signal that traveled over the public analog phone network. However, the analog telephone line limits the amount of information to 56 Kbps. Currently there are analog modems on the market that boast 56 Kbps
capabilities. However, if you read the fine print you will see that their products are "capable" of 56 Kbps downloads, but FCC regulations restrict analog modems to speeds less than 53 Kbps. In reality analog modems have a maximum speed of 33.6 Kbps and most connections only yield 26.4 to 28.8 Kbps.

Many modem users found this technology too slow. Advances in computer communication have brought exciting live video, CD quality audio, and boundless amounts of information to the Internet. However, for most analog modem users these new features were out of their reach. Instead of accessing the bounty of the World Wide Web with the click of their mouse, they were forced to wait patiently while data transferred at one Kbps. This made working from home an inefficient and frustrating experience.

With ISDN technology, telecommuting becomes a more viable and advantageous work option for businesses and employees. ISDN, which is an acronym for Integrated Services Digital Network, is a system of digital phone connections. This is possible when the telephone company network's switch converts to digital connections. ISDN allows multiple digital channels to operate simultaneously over the same telephone wiring. An ISDN BRI line is comprised of two B channels with a maximum data rate of 64 Kbps for each channel. The telecommuters can double their connection speeds by using ISDN with a channel aggregate protocol, such as Multilink PPP. This protocol combines the two B channels to yield data transfer rates as high as 128 Kbps. (See Figure 2. Aggregation )



Using one ISDN line, telecommuters can experience faster and better quality connections than traditional analog lines. Digital lines connect workers to the office, colleagues, data bases, and other computer networks with greater speed, accuracy, and stability than analog connections. ISDN can save telecommuters time and money by enabling higher transmission speeds that give faster results and lower connection times, which reduces overall communication costs. In fact, a digital modem and line gives users access to the Internet at speeds four times faster than analog 28.8 Kbps modems and analog lines. (See Figure 3. Analog v. Digital)

50 KBytes Data File

1 MByte (Image File)

28.8 Kbps Analog Modem

62 seconds

278 seconds

128 Kbps Digital Modem

3 seconds

14 seconds

Whether you are a employee who works from home or an employer who promotes a telecommuting program, ISDN is the best choice for telecommuters. The quality of an ISDN line is unsurpassed. Telecommuters and employers have greater confidence in their connections since ISDN ensures clear, accurate, and stable conversations. Workers can tap into their company's server to access the Internet and download voice, data, image, and video over a single high-speed ISDN line. Clearly, ISDN gives employers and workers the ultimate solution in information and communication technology. (See Figure 4. Telecommuting via ISDN)