By Susan Breidenbach
Network World Fusion, 09/27/99

Convergence may still be a distant thought at many companies, but for start-up Laptop Lane, it’s a way of doing business.

The Bellevue, Wash., company is converging voice and data in the business centers it has opened in major airports around the country. Paying $2 for the first minute and 38 cents for each subsequent minute, a business traveler gets a small private office equipped with a desk, phone, Ethernet-attached desktop computer, and Ethernet and modem jacks for a laptop. People can surf the Web on the desktop system while connecting to their offices with their laptops. The price includes Internet access and unlimited phone calls and fax transmissions.

Travelers also can rent or buy wireless Nokia 802.11 LAN cards for connecting to the Laptop Lane network at 2M bit/sec from anywhere in the airport. "Initially we needed two T-1 lines for each location — one for voice and one for data," says Bruce Merrell, president and CEO of Laptop Lane. "But Vertical Networks came in with its InstantOffice iPBX and revolutionized what we are doing."

Unlike the traditional Nortel PBXs Laptop Lane used initially, the Vertical platform can dynamically allocate bandwidth between voice and data channels on a single primary rate T-1.

For each site, Laptop Lane saves about $2,500 on T-1 installation, plus $1,000 to $1,400 per month on line charges.

There is another 30% to 40% savings on equipment costs because bridge, hub and router functions are built into the iPBX and don’t require separate purchases.

"We can also troubleshoot problems remotely," Merrell says. "We could set up these centers without convergence, but we’d have to charge customers more and we’d make less."

Laptop Lane facilities are now open in Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver and Phoenix, and should be soon in Detroit, New York (LaGuardia), Philadelphia, Raleigh-Durham and Tampa.

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Breidenbach is a freelance technology journalist and consultant. She can be reached at sbreide@aol.com.