Broadband telecommunications may be coming to Sussex courtesy of ADSL but coverage is still patchy in the rest of the country.
ADSL, which stands for asymmetric digital subscriber line, is a broadband internet connection making web access ten times faster.
But BT has yet to install it in many parts of Britain.
So if you want to send rather than receive large files to the less wired areas of the country, you will need to go back to technology more than 15 years old - ISDN.
ISDN, or integrated services digital network to use its less catchy name, was created in 1984.
Excited early-Eighties techies thought it would see off modems within a few years but it never really caught on with the British consumer, although it is popular in Europe.
With computer files growing ever bigger, it is now in its element and remains standard issue in graphics studios and newspaper offices across the country.
BT says some 96 per cent of British businesses can be hooked up, so the chances are if someone needs to receive large files they will have a connection.
ISDN has a few tricks up its sleeve which ADSL cannot match.
ADSL allows you to upload information at up to 256k per second but this depends on how many other people are using your internet service provider (ISP) at any one time.
Alex Studd, marketing manager of ISP Pavilion Internet, explained that ISDN speeds are guaranteed.
If you can afford the connection charges and telephone bill, you can bundle as many lines as you like together, adding 64k of bandwidth with each line.
BT's standard connection offers two lines and it is installing ISDN lines at a rate of 15,000 a week.
Sending information using ISDN as a carrier has nothing to do with the internet, although it can be used to access the web.
ISDN connections work like telephone lines, linking two computers to transfer information.
With no dial-up time, you can start sending ISDN packages in a quarter of a second.
Steve Stanway, marketing manager of Horsham IT firm SAS, said: "To get online, you need a special telephone line and an ISDN card.
"The card turns analogue signals from the phone network into digital links.
"Although most of the phone network is digital, the local loop between your house and the network is not."
Anyone planning to get a number of devices linked to ISDN can use a terminal adapter, an external box which does the same job as a card.
Firms which already run large computer systems can connect a router to the ISDN line.
Aside from the obvious cost, there are downsides to the service, not least the two different ISDN protocols at work in the UK.
But a planned standard Euro-ISDN should get round those problems soon. So how much does it all cost?
You can get a single 64k line from Pavilion Internet for £117.50 per annum.
Companies can order a BT Together for Business connection including two 64k lines at £199 for installation with £82.75 quarterly rental.
Call charges are 4p a minute for national daytime calls and 2p for national evening calls.
Call allowances are available.
SAS distributes ISDN cards for leading German ISDN specialists AVM.
These are priced between £50 and £432.
ISDN has been around for far too long to be exciting.
But unlike ADSL, it is stable, tried, tested and in the shops now.
Those early-Eighties techies could yet be proved right.
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