Shopping for speed

Also: 'Net speed options table (pop up window)

Teleworking Top 10 Part 1: The basics Part 2: Shopping for speed Part 3: Protecting the home front Part 4: Making sure you don't get zapped Part 5: Getting gear for teleworkers Part 6: Controlling communications cost Part 7: Cat 5 vs. wireless: Pros and cons Part 8: Shopping with peripheral vision Part 9: Home-office ergonomics Part 10: Application ABCs Part 11: Wrap up

The CEO just told the senior staff he wants a comprehensive teleworking plan on his desk by Friday. You're tasked with providing a comparative analysis of the pros and cons of each option, complete with costs. "Time is money" is as true for teleworkers as anyone else, and in the light of recent corporate IT meltdowns, you've got to get this one right.

Providing Internet access, complete with a specified quality of service (QoS) and firewall protection, for the corporation is one thing. It's only one point of presence, so you know exactly what's going on. However, providing it for 250 teleworkers is quite another situation altogether, fraught with hidden costs and security problems you'll need to solve to make your corporation's teleworking endeavor a success.

And they're off...

Determining service availability is the first step in your analysis. If an option is not available, or fails to meet the corporate needs, it's a nonplayer. The players are many, and we'll break them out into three categories, based on their throughput. Category one - T-1; Category two - asymmetric DSL (ADSL), cable modem, ISDN, satellite (one-way or two-way) and wireless; Category three - ISDN and plain old telephone service (POTS), also known as "dial-up." Let's take a look at these in order of throughput.

POTS is available everywhere, but will cost you $35 or more each month for a second phone line and an ISP account. Alternatively, your teleworkers can dial into your corporate remote access server, but studies show that while the security is increased with a RAS, it also costs about 50% more per teleworker than outsourcing to an ISP. The main benefit of a RAS is its QoS. By using high-quality modems, you can achieve at least a 28.8K bit/sec connection, even in poorer environments. Many ISPs average considerably less throughput during peak hours.

The downside of POTS is the time your teleworker loses waiting for a connection and coping with nonconnects and disconnects during periods of high use. The time that's lost can range between 5 and 30 minutes per day, costing your company $130 per month. Add the additional time it takes to upload and download files and you begin to understand why choosing POTS will result in you paying your teleworker for long coffee breaks while they wait.

ISDN is an idea who's time has come . . . and nearly gone. It costs about $150 to install and $40 per month, but at 128K bit/sec, it's slower than comparably-priced alternatives. Its only saving grace is its two channels can also be used for data (at 56K bit/sec) and voice, making it a decent choice for small branch offices where bandwidth requirements may be minimal.

ADSL is the current rage. Unfortunately, "rage" often describes a customer's mental state after they've waited up to six weeks for the service only to spend another month ironing out the kinks. ADSL provides an average of 512K bit/sec download, and 128K bit/sec upload. It costs about $40 per month, but the setup can range between $0 and $400, depending on your teleworker's location. Furthermore, if you're not less than 18,000 feet of the telephone company's switch, you're out of luck. Even then, many telcos are limiting installations to less than 15,000 feet due to the significantly higher number of problems associated with the "fringe" areas approaching 18,000 feet.

Cable data service is also available for $40 per month, with setup fees between $15 and $100, depending on who installs the network card and who configures the computer. With throughputs rivaling ADSL, two-way satellite and wireless, a cable modem is an attractive option for the teleworker. Although many have written about the problem of sharing the service with others, this is a bit of a misnomer. All users share Internet access. While it's true cable modem users are aggregated closer to the teleworker than ADSL users, thus magnifying local problems, there has been little reduction in throughput during periods of peak usage on some cable modems.

Satellite data service comes in two flavors: one-way and two-way. One-way service, such as Hughes' DirecPC (www. direcpc.com), uses the satellite for the downloads and a phone line for the uploads, and costs about $200 to install and about $50 per month. Two-way service is still in the works, but expect Hughes and rival WildBlue (www.wildblue.com/flash. htm) to use new satellites for uploads and downloads beginning early next year. Two-way satellite will be between 30% and 50% more expensive than the first, but you save a bundle on that second phone line, and promised up to a seven-fold increase in throughput.

T-1 is the king of high-speed Internet connectivity for consumers. Unless your teleworker needs the bandwidth for moving megabyte graphics or digital video, however, it's overkill. You'll pay for every bit per second, too, with an installation bill of about $300 and a monthly bill of nearly $700, give or take a few hundred based on location. Teleworkers who perform post-production digital video for everything from movie studios to local television stations are rapidly increasing, and their organizations are willing to foot the bill.

Wireless local loop, also known as "fixed-point wireless," is the latest entrant. Right now it's quite expensive, with typical installation fees topping $1,000, and an average monthly charge of more than $100, although its download and upload speeds compare favorably with cable, ADSL and two-way satellite. The big show- stopper is that it's available in only a few metropolitan areas. However, because the repeaters can be mounted pretty much anywhere, it will soon reach further, and faster, than cable modem or ADSL. Companies such as NetBeam (www.netbeam.net) and Cingular (www.cingular.com), formerly BellSouth Wireless Data, are well-suited to capturing these markets.

... Down the stretch

Each option has its pros and cons. What the CEO really wants to know, however, are answers to questions like "which option meets our service-level requirements for the least cost?" The above graphic, sorted in order of average download bandwidth, will help you answer that question:

To make a decision and determine the impact on your corporation's bottom line, fill in a blank chart with the options and prices available in your area ((www.broadbandcompass.com). Make sure they meet your teleworkers' needs in terms of average throughput and features, without exceeding your maximum allowable total cost. Then, pick the option that will provide you with the highest download bandwidth per three-year cost.

Next article: Part 3: Protecting the homefront - Why firewalls and security are absolutely essential to protecting your teleworker, as well as your corporate environment. Go to our Net.Worker home page to read more teleworking articles.

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Janss is the president of Jansys Information Systems, a consulting firm specializing in IS technologies for small businesses. He can be reached at bizcom@jansys.com