The reason why telecommuting (inspite of all its' very serious advantages) is still not the norm nationally - leave alone globally is because employers have a very great fear of losing control over their workforce - despite every single evidence and statistic to the contrary employers still firmly believe that the "invisible" employee (re:Steve's editorial) is not as productive as the visible one.

That would be one of your major advantages over an Indian DBA counterpart (assuming you live in the U.S) :

1) Location still matters in the telecommuting world - most of the teleworkers I know come in to the office at least once a week - where distance doesn't matter is usually in the case of someone very senior and trustworthy!

2) My manager used to (in the initial weeks) call at random hours just to check and make sure that I answered the phone and that I was where I said I would be - with the time difference between the U.S and Asian countries "checking on an employee" becomes a very difficult task.

3) 9/11 - there've been so many changes in so many ways after this day - one of them is that the Federal (more than State) government contracts have increased a hundredfold and most of these come with the minimum requirement that the employee be a U.S citizen (most require a secret clearance and up...) !

4) One of the drawbacks that most teleworkers have groused about is that when working from home the clock never stops ticking so they put in at least a few more (productive I may add) hours than their office going colleagues - now (strangely enough) - the employers are always happy with this complaint! <;-)

5) Lastly, I would come full circle back to "earning trust" - with me (as with most others) - the beginning is usually - "why don't we try it for a couple of weeks/months" and if it doesn't work out, we can always revert back to the 9 to 5 office routine - this arrangement is usually only when the employee is "local" and not separated by oceans.

Telecommuting is still in its' infancy and it's going to be some time before it becomes as practiced as a raging fad!

It is also not for everybody (it does require a LOT of discipline) and not everyones' work situation is suited for it.