It is then delivered to the public phone network. The IAD supported eight telephones as well as an Internet connection. The traffic was combined by the IAD, and fed down the DSL line to a Choice One DSL multiplexer in the local Bell Atlantic switching office. It was then piped back to Choice One's own switching office where the Internet traffic was sent to the Internet and the voice was converted and dropped onto the regular phone network. The technology is attractive to Bigelow because his business depends on phones for voice and data.
Doctors dial in to transcription machines to record patient medical records.
Transcribers in Syracuse, N.Y., transcribe the recordings to make written medical records. During the test, Bigelow found no difference between the voice quality on the DSL lines and those on a regular analog phone. If a single DSL line can handle eight voice channels, but is not fully loaded yet, more channels can be added via network provisioning without having to string new wires, he says. Choice One has not set prices on its service, which the company plans to roll out by the end of the first quarter of 2000. Options may include offering less expensive voice channels or offering the voice at a price on par with regular phone lines and tossing in Internet access for free, says Kevin Dickens, Choice One's senior vice president of engineering and operations.