The system then sends only the location of that case in the library on the other end of the connection, radically reducing time and bandwidth demands for both dictation and transcription. Some companies have gone one step further. They combine several specialist programs into a library with enough intelligence to know which subject to pick and when. For example, such programs can recognize a spreadsheet file, decompose it into a more succinct set of formulas and data, and then pass that information down the line. The receiving end then recognizes the information as spreadsheet data and can regenerate the columns and rows of cells into their original format.
Different compressors can do the same for presentation and word processing files.
Loretta Michaels, director of Nortel Network's Wireless Internet Division, says that ICT's compressors can make a 9600bps or 14.4Kbps connection behave like a 56Kbps connection or better. According to Michaels, the Toronto-based Nortel was so impressed by ICT's compressors, which it originally bought for internal use, that the company is incorporating them into products of its own. ICT isn't the only advanced compression company out there. Expand Networks of Roseland, N.J., builds network accelerators that save bandwidth by using several techniques. Calif.-based Wyle Electronics, says he's seen a threefold to fourfold increase in effective bandwidth by using the products.