Telebit Corp, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, has enhanced its NetBlazer local area network-to-local area network router to provide dial-up communications over British Telecommunications Plc’s ISDN 2 service. The product was available previously only for use with analogue modems, but the company has added the necessary software and gained licensing approval from BT Laboratories for connection to ISDN 2. It has also been tested with the major ISDN services in other parts of Europe, the US, and Japan. NetBlazer provides 64Kbps channels access on a dial-up basis, over leased lines, or in a combination of the two. Using its parallel path facilities multiple 64Kbps links can be established between pairs of sites, for situations where there are very high peak traffic levels, and it can handle continous flow over leased lines where this is more cost-effective. It’s an 80386-based product giving transparent access and can be used to connect a single personal computer or terminal at a remote site into a network. The dial-up capabilities are said to be advantageous particularly for low volume applications, and the company believes that the wide availability of the ISDN 2 service – currently 75% of British Telecom subscribers have the option of connection, and there are over 60,000 channels in use – will ensure a good take-up. Also, it is targeting users whose traffic volumes do not justify connection to ISDN 2 – or to whom the service is not yet available – but who think that their needs may increase in the future. NetBlazer is distributed by London-based Chernikeeff Telecommunications Ltd in the UK, and costs from UKP4,000.
