The low price option for computers to share information across long distance for the past 20 years has been the modem. Starting at 110 characters per second in the 1970's we've slowly increased in speed up 54,000 characters per second... and growing? No.

Modem technology has reached its limit. The technology required to compress data and reach higher and higher speeds has finally hit it's ceiling. It's not a limit set by the modem but rather by the phone lines and the phone company and there's little chance for modems to get a governor's pardon on this one.

Fortunately a very new technology has entered the picture to fill the void. That new technology is called DSL. Digital Subscriber Link (DSL) is a new way to connect computers to other computers as well as the Internet. DSL uses an existing phone line and adds an extra "channel" on top of the voice information for data. Now data and a simultaneous voice communication can take place at the same time.

Currently US West is offering speeds up to 768K/second. That's over 14 times faster than the fastest modem on the market. And the best part is that the computer doesn't even have to dial a phone number! While the voice channel works as it always does the new data channel maintains a constant connection with the Internet that can be shared by every PC in the office at the same time.

Many companys add multiple phone lines (at $50 or more) with modems on each line (at $150 or more) for all the people in the office that need to communicate with the outside world. If they can't justify the cost of multiple modems they have one single, shared computer with a modem. Each user has to walk down the hall (and possibly wait their turn to get at the computer), dial up the remote system, wait for the signals to synch, log in to the remote system and wait for a response each time they need to access the remote system.

Now you may say "OK. So what that it takes 6-7 minutes to get logged in. So what if they do that 3, 4 or 5 times a day. That's not that much time."

That's not the question to ask. Instead ask yourself this "What information am I not bothering to look up because it takes me 5 minutes? What facts am I not verifying because I don't have the time to dial up another system?" The quality of information increases immensely purely because of the availability of the correct answer. And who isn't in the business of providing the "right" answer to client's they serve?

The "availability" is just the tip of the iceberg. DSL opens up a new world in communication by giving access to Email, promoting your business through the World Wide Web and giving you clients easy, immediate access directly to the people in your company that serve those clients.

And the cost? Denver, Colorado you don't know how good you've got it. Typically DSL costs about $350 to install and costs about $55 a month. I've priced DSL in Los Angles and in Boston. Their costs are running 2 to 3 times what it costs here in Colorado. Compared to a modem line at $35 each, a modem at $150 each and waiting for that connection so you can communicate at less than 1/10th of the speed of DSL. It's no contest. The modem is dead.