DSL Simplifies Business Telecommunications.

Small business owners can eliminate the hassle of separate phone lines for fax, Internet and phone service with the advent of digital subscriber line -- DSL -- technology.

Digital subscriber lines enable users to receive Internet access at up to 50 times the speed of their traditional dial-up connections and allows them to conduct phone calls, send and receive faxes, and surf the Web all on one telephone line.

DSL is especially beneficial to business owners because they can simultaneously receive customers' faxes, take telephone orders and look up necessary information on the Internet

GTE provides DSL in 17 of the 28 states in which GTE operates, including California.

Heidi Toso, owner of E-Z Mail, a retail shipping business in Thousand Oaks, has found two ways to make DSL work for her business.

"I'm using it for my own business use like FedEx tracking and also for customer use to rent time on the computer," says Toso. DSL's principal advantage is speed. In the workplace, it means less time stuck in Internet "traffic," freeing up more time to do business.

"Before DSL, when I sent my business colleague a five-megabyte drawing via e-mail, it took me a half hour to upload and download," says Gary Erickson, owner of Wolff-Erickson Incorporated, a firm in Fountain Valley that designs and manufactures parts for musical instruments. "But now, with GTE'S DSL, it takes me just a couple minutes. I can spend more time working rather than waiting to receive information."

DSL can even save money. "For businesses, local numbers cost six cents per minute each time you go online, whereas DSL provides unlimited access for a flat fee," Toso says.

The technology is catching on. After using DSL at E-Z Mail, three of Toso's customers set up their own DSL accounts.