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If your ready to buy ISDN and your interested in a ISDN vendor OTHER than the ones mentioned in this Web page, make SURE that you can get a money-back guarantee on your ISDN purchase. The reason for this is that ISDN data technology is still relatively new and some ISDN equipment might have problems communicating with your ISP's PRI / BRI equipment.

Anyway, here are some rough pricing figures for an ISDN installation. Please consult Pacific Bell's WWW price sheet for up-to-date prices on ISDN Home and Centrex line costs and either your local computer store and/or the Internet for other ISDN-related equipment.

Is it worth it? : If you are curious how ISDN ranks up against ADSL and Cablemodems in terms of price, speed, etc.. check out my Cablemodems page for a cool comparison page.

Pacific Bell recently raised their ISDN rates and introduced a maximum limit of free NON-prime time ISDN hours. Check out Pacific Bell's ISDN tariff page for more information.

Pick the Billing type of ISDN you want:

The first thing to get ISDN into your home / office is to order your ISDN line. For the home user, you have two types of ISDN service to choose from:

Please Note: These prices may change at any time and I probably won't be notified when they do. So please verify them on your own account and then fire off an e-mail to me!]b

Fastrak Home ISDN:

A 'Home ISDN' line that a ISDN service that is billed per minute during prime hours.

It costs (as of 7/1/97):

$125 installation charge
$29.50 per month
$34.75 setup fee

Once the ISDN line is installed, home users are billed:
$0.03 for the first minute
$0.01 for each additional minute (per B-channel)
From Monday-Friday from 8am-5pm for a ZONE1 local call.
Please see PacBell's Rate Structure for Zone2, Zone3, and Local+ calls.

Off business times and weekends are free until the user reaches the 200 hour B-channel usage CAP per month (note: This is 100Hrs if you always connect at 128Kb/s).

These costs are acceptable for the occasional ISDN user but the minute charges can really start to add-up for power users. For example, check out this real-world ISDN costs table for someone who runs a server at home.. ME! If you see yourself using your ISDN line during business peak hours or using the ISDN line more than 200hrs a month during non-peak hours per month, you should SERIOUSLY consider getting either a ISDN Centrex line or even a 128K Frame Relay connection.

Fastrak Centrex ISDN:

A 'Centrex' ISDN line is a service that is billed at a flat rate regardless of when and how long you are connected.

This service costs:

$150 installation charge
$39.15 a month
$70 for the initial setup
A possible $200-$400 fee for creating a new Centrex system if your ISP doesn't already have one established.

So what does it REALLY cost to get connected?

First, you can use the existing phone wire in your home or apartment but ISDN is fairly sensitive to lousy phone wire, crosstalk, etc. I would personally recommend to install (by PacBell ($85) or by yourself) new phone wire using Category 3 or better cabling. If you question the quality of your phone wire AND phone jack, don't second guess it, just run a cable just in case.

Buying the right Hardware: Check out the middle section of my hardware evaluations page for specific information on the differences between and ISDN T/A and router and what are the differences in the available ISDN hardware.

*** Please note ***:
The following prices are common prices on the street. Like anything else, shop around to find the best deal since prices vary WIDELY.
• Here are a few places to get your started:
  • PriceWatch
    
  • Uvision
    
  • NetX

ISP: Once you have the wiring done, you need to get an ISP to connect you to the Internet. Service and price vary widely based upon what kind of service you want. Check out my Researching an ISP page for some good ideas of how to narrow down your search.
If you attend Chico State, I would recommend you to use CSUC as your ISP. Check out CSUC's ISDN pricing for their various levels of IP/IPX service.

So.. Lets see a few sample price quotes (as of 7/28/97) for a:

1. Low cost : non-Centrex : ISDN T/A configuration
2. Medium Cost : non-Centrex : ISDN Router (1 user) configuration
2. High Cost : Centrex : ISDN Router (multi-user) configuration

These prices assume that you install the ISDN wiring, the necessary ISDN T/A or router hardware, and all necessary software by yourself. Also, if you are using a third party ISP like Chico State or, for this example, Value.net.

1. Low cost : non Centrex : ISDN T/A setup [some ISDN/computer networking 
   experience is a MUST]:

	$125.00 - Pacific Bell ISDN installation [Non refundable]
	$ 34.75 - Pacific Bell Non-Centrex ISDN setup fee 
	$ 29.50 - Pacific Bell monthly non-Centrex ISDN charge
	$  0.00 - You install the ISDN line into your house
	$301.00 - 3Com Impact IQ (external w/ built-in NT1)
	$  0.00 - You install and configure your ISDN card and computer
	$ 45.00 - Value.net Account setup fee
	$ 45.00 - Value.net unlimited (1) B-channel [64k] connections
	$  0.00 - Pac Bell : Assuming you use your ISDN line during off-hours
				   (see the link in the HomeISDN description
				    above for a real world per-minute ISDN Bill)
	-------
	$580.50 w/o sales tax, any shipping, etc
					

2. Medium Cost : non-Centrex : ISDN Router configuration


	$125.00 - Pacific Bell ISDN installation
	$ 34.75 - Pacific Bell Centrex ISDN setup fee
	$ 29.50 - Pacific Bell monthly non-Centrex ISDN charge
	$  0.00 - You install the ISDN line into your house
	$411.00 - Ascend Pipeline 25 (1 user version)
	$ 19.00 - Cheap NE2000 ISA-based Ethernet card
	$  0.00 - You install and configure your Ethernet card and ISDN router
	$ 45.00 - Value.net Account setup fee
	$ 45.00 - Value.net unlimited (1) B-channel [64k] connections
	$  0.00 - Pac Bell : Assuming you use your ISDN line during off-hours
				   (see the link in the HomeISDN description
				    above for a real world per-minute ISDN Bill)
	-------
	$709.25  w/o sales tax, any shipping, etc


3. High Cost:  Centrex : ISDN Router (multi-user) configuration

	$125.00 - Pacific Bell ISDN installation
	$ 70.00 - Pacific Bell Centrex ISDN setup fee
	$ 39.15 - Pacific Bell monthly non-Centrex ISDN charge
	$  0.00 - You install the ISDN line into your house
	$599.00 - Ascend Pipeline 75 (multi-user version)
	$ 57.00 - (3) cheap NE2000 ISA-based Ethernet cards
	$ 60.00 - Basic 8-port twisted pair Ethernet hub
	$  0.00 - You install and configure your Ethernet card(s) and ISDN router
	$ 30.00 - Three 15' twisted pair Ethernet cables
	$400.00 - Value.net Account setup fee
	$325.00 - Value.net Locked up (2) B-channel [128k] connections
	$  0.00 - Pac Bell : Assuming you use your ISDN line during off-hours
	-------
	$1705.15  w/o sales tax, any shipping, etc

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Last Updated: 07/19/98

[ HOME ] [ Linux ] [ RAS ] [ Networks ] [ PC Hardware ] [ ISDN ] [ Cablemodems ] [ Eval ISPs ] [ Security ] [ Trinity Designs ] [ Who am I ] [ Bookmarks ] [ ChangesLog ] [ Email me ] [ --- ] [ Search! ]