Hermstedt saw a sudden surge in sales in April and May with increases of 33%.


Sales of its primary rate 30-channel ISDN cards were particularly strong, which it attributed to BT cutting the 2,500 installation cost to nothing if a certain volume of monthly calls is made.


Despite the sales rise coinciding with the demise of managed service Vio and rumours surrounding the future of WAM!NET, Hermstedts UK managing director Andy Eakins did not think this significant.


He attributed it to firms investing in ISDN rather than ADSL. "ADSL was a massive promise, people hung on for it and then there was a backlash," said Eakins.


He claimed that users have had reliability problems and that telecoms providers were now admitting that it was never intended for mission-critical uses such as pre-press file transfer.


Hermstedt is positioning Grand Central Pro 3.0 as the file transfer management software to use regardless of connection. It works with ISDN, ADSL, leased line or modem.


To be released in August, the 399 software supports sending data via an existing IP connection and compatibility with Mac OS X.


Story by Barney Cox