But, because of unpredictable delays, they were poorly suited for carrying time-sensitive information such as voice or video. These products can integrate simultaneous voice, data, fax and LAN traffic over a single WAN connection, significantly reducing the customer's communica- tions costs. The public frame relay connection the customer was going to use for data or LAN traffic to a remote site can now carry simultaneous voice and fax to the same site. On a particular unit, for example, one connection might use frame relay to access a public frame relay service, while another connection might use MicroBand ATM cell relay over a leased line. This allows the customer to build networks that use the lowest cost, best performing connections.
Customers can use frame relay today, private lines tomorrow, or a hybrid combination of the two.
And that's the bottom line.