Mobile Broadband Faster Than Optical?

The holy grail of broadband is fiber optic transmission, with it's potentially limitless bandwidth. In practical applications such as FTTH, that backbone bandwidth is divvied up as it is delivered to homes and businesses on passive optical networks. Verizon FiOS, the leader in FTTH, now offers up to 50 Mbps download with 20 Mbps upload in selected areas. That's nearly an order of magnitude above most Cable broadband and DSL, and way beyond the capability of mobile broadband. Or is it?

According to a recent report, cell phone manufacturer Ericsson has tested LTE mobile broadband technology to peak speeds of 130 Mbps with growth possibilities to 260 Mbps. Wow! Wireless broadband in the hundreds of Megabits per second. Where do I sign up?

Well, not so fast. When they say that LTE stands for Long Term Evolution, they mean it. LTE is the 4G or fourth generation wireless data standard intended to replace current technologies such as EDGE or HSDPA on GSM cellular networks. AT&T is a prime candidate and T-Mobile is likely to follow.

Ericsson's proof of concept testing used the maximum of 4 transmit streams received by 4 MIMO antennas over 10 MHz channels. MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) antenna technology improves wireless performance when there is interference present, as there will be in any mobile situation, especially in metro areas. By doubling the channel bandwidth to 20 Mbps, the transmission rate could peak near 300 Mbps.

So what would you do with 130 Mbps, much less 260 Mbps? It seems unlikely that you'll need this capability for text messaging or even Web browsing. Think high definition TV or HDTV video conferencing. Business users will be able to download massive files while on the road and easily run applications remotely. Plus, who knows what the future will bring? So far, technology development has shown that we can quickly find uses for any amount of processor speed, memory, hard drive capability or bandwidth that is offered. It isn't necessarily what you're doing now, but what you might do tomorrow that counts.

Tomorrow is where LTE is targeted. Remember that AT&T has just started offering the 3G iPhone running on its HSDPA network. They're going to need some breathing time before getting their tower sites upgraded to LTE. But not too much breathing time. Sprint's WiMAX is out to capture the early lead in 4G with its Xohm WiMAX network that has just started operations in Baltimore. Ericsson expects LTE to start becoming available in the latter part of next year.

Even so, it will be some time before the 4G networks will be offering 100 Mbps bandwidth to their customers. Right now, affordable 3G technology is available in the 1 to 3 Mbps range using plug-in aircards for laptop computers and built into selected mobile phones. Check out the complete selection of current offerings at Cell Phone Plans Finder now.

Free Telecom Consulting Service

How many companies have the budget left to hire consultants these days? Fewer and fewer. Even if you think hiring a particular consultant could result in more money saved than spent, it's hard to justify spending in the first place. So what does a manager or business owner have to do? Wait until sales increase and cash flow improves? No. Just get your consulting help for free.

Free consultants? Where do you get a deal like that? There's a company that specializes in technical consulting related to business telecommunications. All you need to do is enter an online inquiry or call a toll free number and your friendly consultant will be in touch quickly. In fact, if you're working the graveyard shift and need some recommendations on your WAN upgrade project, you can call up and talk to someone immediately.

What sort of consulting is provided? It's limited to telecommunications services, but that covers a lot of territory. Some of the frequently discussed topics include T1 lines, telephone trunking for PBX phone systems, backhaul for wireless Internet service providers, connecting multiple businesses using MPLS networking, LAN extension with Metro Ethernet, integrating voice and data with Integrated T1 or SIP trunking, quickly enabling point of sales terminals with wireless broadband connections, and outsourcing your data center to a colocation facility.

The Telarus experts understand both the technical tradeoffs involved with selecting one service over another and the financial advantages of each approach. They can get you the cost data you need to justify that new project. They'll also recommend the most cost effective solution among available options.

The fact that these consultants are tightly coupled with their counterparts at so many competitive carriers gives them insights that would be hard for you to gain by approaching service providers individually. Telarus consultants know who's running what special deals on what services, so they can get you the best deals in place at any given time.

Fees paid by carriers, not clients, are what enables Telarus to work on your behalf for free. You don't even need to buy anything to take advantage of this service. But you probably will if you need telecom services for any aspect of your business. The prices you obtain from Telarus bandwidth services are more likely than not to offer significant savings over whatever else you can get. That's especially true if you are already under contract and shopping around prior to expiration. You know what you're paying now. Wait till you see how much less it could be next time.

Got a minute? Take advantage of the Telarus GeoQuote(tm) online service finder or call the toll free number you'll find at T1 Rex. Remember, it's free for any serious business user.

XOHM, XOHM's Got The Range

Sprint's XOHM (say zome, like home) wireless broadband service is off and running in Baltimore. This is the start of the long anticipated deployment of WiMAX as the next generation of high speed Internet service. If Sprint is able to realize its 4G dream, WiFi hotspots may become a thing of the past. DSL? Cable? Who wants to be tethered by a wire when you can roam wirelessly, gloriously, free?

The dream is built on a new wireless technology that has been standardized for worldwide application in both fixed and mobile applications. WiMAX or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, offers coverage measured in dozens of miles and bandwidth that could extend to dozens of Mbps. Sprint's deployment offers 2-4 Mbps download and 0.5 to 1.5 Mbps upload. That's comparable to the majority of DSL, Cable broadband and even professional grade T1 and Ethernet connections.

WiMAX is often thought of as the big brother to WiFi. It's not a bad comparison if you are thinking in terms of laptop computers using wireless adaptors for broadband Internet access. WiFi's limitation is that it has a footprint pretty much limited to a single building. Drive away from the restaurant, home, or business office and your signal disappears. The best you can do is find another "hotspot" where you can resume operations.

WiMAX is meant to cover a town or major area of a city. It uses higher power signals on licensed frequencies. In Sprint's case it is their exclusive 2.5 GHz spectrum. The higher power levels of WiMAX transmissions allow their wireless signals to penetrate buildings and vehicles. OFDMA or Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Multiple Access modulation is resilient to service dropouts due to interference. MIMO or Multiple Input Multiple Output antenna technology also helps to improve system performance in the presence of multipath distortion that occurs when signals bounce off buildings in metro areas.

Sprint offers an XOHM base station modem for home or small office use. It looks a little like a high tech coffee brewer in shiny black. This device is self-contained with built-in antennas and Ethernet jack output. For mobile use, they have WiMAX aircards for PCMCIA slots or USB.

The direct competitor for WiMAX is 3G cellular broadband. Sprint also provides that service as EV-DO. You can order EV-DO service and air cards for nationwide access in most medium and major cities. Verizon offers a competing EV-DO service and AT&T has its own HSDPA broadband service, popularized by the Apple iPhone 3G.

XOHM is on its way to Chicago and Washington DC, with systems planned for Dallas, Fort Worth, Boston, Providence and Philadelphia. Nationwide deployment should roll out in the years ahead, economics permitting. Who knows, in the future there may well be XOHM where the buffalo roam.

Cisco's Virtual Teleportation Replaces Airports

Aficionados of Star Trek have long anticipated the day when we could simply beam instantly to wherever we want to go. Well, the technology just isn't there yet. There have been some interesting experiments in quantum physics that suggest physical teleportation may indeed be possible. But it's probably going to have to wait for another century. We we have now, thanks to Cisco, is virtual teleportation.

What can the virtual form of teleportation do for you? How about take you instantly to a business meeting in Hong Kong or Germany or New York? You walk into the conference room and find your colleagues seated around the meeting table. But only some of them are where you are. Others are somewhere else in the world. They look the same, they sound the same. But they are on the other side of a table that you can't reach across.

Cisco calls this technology TelePresence. It's a major improvement in the last big advance in collaboration, video conferencing. The low resolution, small screen size and muddy audio typical of many video conferencing systems has been replaced by large flat screen displays, high definition full motion video, high fidelity audio, and a virtual conference table.

The table is the final touch of magic that makes the TelePresence experience seem real. Each TelePresence room is outfitted with a half table pushed up against a wall. When you turn on the system, the other half of the table appears through the video displays on the wall making it look like there is a single large table. Your local team sits on the physical side. Other participants sit on the virtual side. Except to them they are sitting on the physical side and you are sitting on the virtual side.

Cisco has deployed about 1,000 of these TelePresence systems to about 200 enterprise customers worldwide. They also have a fleet of their own TelePresence meeting rooms in 129 cities of 40 countries. I say fleet, because what Cisco has really created here is a replacement for airlines and airports.

Consider a typical business meeting. You go to an airport, board a plane, land at another airport, and then go to a more or less standard business meeting room at your destination. They're pretty much all the same. You have a large wooden desk with arm chairs in a windowless room containing acoustic tiles and fluorescent lights. There's an overhead projector with screen, a computer to upload your PowerPoint presentations, and a roll-around cart with coffee dispensers. The conference rooms are standardized, as are the airports and planes. So why not just get rid of the airports and planes?

Since all you really need are the conference rooms, just go ahead and hook them together. A TelePresence system and a high bandwidth connection allow you to remove the wall between the conference rooms and simply join them. It's just like opening the partition between two physical rooms in one building. Except that those rooms can be anywhere on Earth that you can get the needed bandwidth. That's pretty much any metropolitan area these days.

Cisco is now renting out their own TelePresence rooms starting at $299 an hour. Expensive room rent? Not really. You'll have a hard time spending less than that to transport one participant via air. If you need to send several people with perhaps overnight stays, Cisco's offer starts to look downright cheap. If your company does a lot of meetings, the cost of a dedicated in-house TelePresence conference center may well be justified. So it may cost up to several hundred thousand dollars for a deluxe setup? So what? How much does that private jet cost to operate and maintain?

Cisco's promoting their TelePresence service as an alternative to the inconvenience of travel. But the benefits go beyond cost savings and the avoided travel stresses. With TelePresence you have the ability to arrange same day meetings with international participation. Teams may just move into one of these rooms to collaborate on their projects. Imagine the productivity improvement when everyone is at the same table continuously. Communications delays become a thing of the past.

Cisco's order of magnitude improvement to video conferencing has created a "realness" to virtual meetings that could become so comfortable that physical meetings may seem ridiculous. Yeah, but, you can't all go out to lunch or dinner, can you? Why not? With the same catering at each end, why can't you dine virtually? There may even be a way to play those silly team bonding games with props and facilitators at each end. Anyone want to hang climbing ropes from the ceilings?

All this virtual collaboration may seem a bit awkward now, but I've got a feeling that it could catch on and become the norm rather than the exception. It wasn't that long ago that exchanging documents was done by overnight mail rather than instantaneous email or even FAX. Who wants to wait for the Post Office anymore? Could the day be far away that people will say, "who wants to wait for a plane anymore?"

Of Course Elephants Text

The next time you feel like complaining about how hard it is to text using those tiny little buttons on your cell phone, just remember that somewhere in Kenya an elephant is probably texting right now. You don't hear THEM complaining about big feet, little buttons. What? Elephants text?

Of course elephants send text messages. You expect them to use push to talk? Actually, elephants don't really need to put five other elephants in their favorites list. They can communicate audibly using low frequencies called infrasonics that carry for miles. It's when they need to tell us something that the cell phones get activated.

Don't expect to catch site of an elephant whipping out an iPhone when you are on safari. The text messaging they do is via some very specialized equipment and at our request, not theirs. But it works to everyone's benefit. In this case, the cellular technology has been pressed into service to make sure that elephants and humans can live in harmony.

The idea is to let wildlife rangers know when elephants are going after farmer's crops, so they can be led back to their protected areas before any violence ensues. Even in a land as vast and rural as Africa, there just aren't enough wild spaces left so that people and elephants will naturally keep their distance. As a result of human settlements encroaching more and more on what was once wilderness area, farmers and elephants are competing for the same swaths of land. Elephants go after the farmer's cash crops. Farmer's defend what they have worked so hard to produce and things get violent. Sometimes the elephants win and there are fewer farmers. Sometimes the farmers win and there are a few less elephants.

This is what the wireless notification system has been designed to prevent. The way it works is that a specially designed mobile transmitter is built into a collar that the elephant wears. Inside the electronics box is a mobile phone SIM card, GPS receiver, wireless transmitter and battery pack. A virtual fence is programmed into the system so that when an elephant approaches the limit of the Ol Pejeta conservancy, a warning message is transmitted to park rangers. They can then intercept the wayward elephant before there is a problem.

It works! By redirecting elephants back to their protected territory, crop raiding has been reduced significantly. The elephants also learn where their new territorial limits are and share that information with the herd. In a way, it's like invisible dog fencing but for a much, much larger animal and without anyone getting a shock. Just text messages.

Now if YOU want to send text messages, you'll need a more human scale phone. You'll find many special offers, including free phones, at Cell Phone Plans Finder.

If you want to help protect elephants in their habitat, visit Save The Elephants. In the United States, former circus and zoo elephants are protected and nurtured at The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee and the Performing Animal Wildlife Sanctuary (PAWS).

The Painless Way to Find Network Technicians

Your business is big enough and high tech enough that you have an in-house data network and a PBX telephone system. Perhaps you have even converged your networks with an enterprise VoIP phone system. But what you don't have is the budget for a full time IT staff and certainly not a telecommunications department. You need to hire the services you need as you need them. But is there an easy way to find contractors to do this work?

There is now. It's called the VAR Network. VAR stands for Value Added Reseller. These are companies that specialize in the equipment offered by one or more manufacturers. VARs range in scope from authorized dealers that simply stock and ship equipment to full service companies that offer consulting, sales, system design, installation, training, upgrades and repairs.

The VAR Network specializes in two types of technologies. They are business telephone systems and computer networks. If what you need is help with either of these technologies, then the VAR Network is your place for one stop shopping. The VARs that are part of this network can help you with everything from replacement parts to turnkey systems.

Here's how it works. You simply browse to the VAR Network site and look for the link that best describes the services you need. That could be network equipment, high speed Internet service, phone system hardware, telephone service, or VoIP equipment & service. You can simply start your request by selecting telephone or data networking. Or just put in your zip code and let the site guide you through a structured inquiry.

What happens next? Your request is matched to participating VARs in the database. These are dealers and technicians who have registered to become members of the VAR Network. The are distributed geographically across the United States. You'll only be contacted by VARs that serve your area and have the capabilities that you request. When a VAR calls, you can get into a more detailed discussion or set up a meeting.

How much does all of this cost? Absolutely nothing to you the customer. VARs support the network based on the new business it brings them. They compete to get the best leads by providing superior service that may include both the system and the connectivity you require.

Do you have a need for technical support? Perhaps something you've been putting off because you weren't sure where to get the right help? Here's your chance to get the service you need without any more grief. Simply visit the VAR Network right now and get your inquiry started. The system is available 24/7 online so anytime is a good time to give it a try.

Get Your Business Bandwidth Free

You know that telecommunications costs represent a significant budget item, even for small business owners. We've already discussed how you can potentially slash your costs in half by switching to lower cost providers. You can check voice and data line pricing here. But how about taking an even bolder step? Why not get your business bandwidth for free?

Hear me out before you click away. There is a way to do this that can give you the same professional quality of service you have now but at a net zero cost to your business. It's based on a real estate model that you are probably already familiar with. It's legitimate and it could potentially work for you.

Here's the principle. A friend explained it to me years ago when he was looking to find a new apartment. The owner of the apartment complex explained that he could rent a nice apartment for a certain amount each month. Or he could buy a fourplex and move into one of the apartments. The rent from the other three units would be enough to cover the mortgage payments in full. He would then be living there for free.

There are no doubt may real estate tycoons who have gotten their start this way. Many families after WWII found that they could afford to have their own homes if they bought a duplex and rented out the upper floor. In today's economic tough times we may be headed back to an era like this to make real estate affordable again.

But how does real estate strategy translate to, say, Internet connections? Basically you do the same thing that my friend was pitched. You order the service and a router. Then you become the local service provider and collect enough monthly fees to pay the line lease.

Let's take an example. You are in a small strip mall (or office building) with three other businesses. You would all like to have T1 line service if you can get it at an affordable price. In this case, we will assume that the line costs $500 per month on a 3 year lease that includes a managed router at no cost. You'll need four switched outputs, which may come with the router or can be added with an inexpensive Ethernet switch. Now you plug in network lines from the four businesses into the router or switch and charge your three clients $200 a month each for T1 service.

See what just happened? All four of you have T1 Internet access at 1.5 Mbps. The other businesses each pay less than half what it would cost to have their own T1 line. You pay nothing. In fact, you make $100 a month for your trouble since 3 x $200 = $600 per month.

This is called bandwidth sharing and it's something that apartment owners have been quietly doing for years. You are not limited to just four users on a T1 line. In fact, you can have as many as 25 casual users on a T1 and not be bogged down excessively. As long as you don't have a bandwidth hog who is doing something like constantly downloading video or running a streaming audio or video server, your service will be plenty zippy.

The figure of $500 a month that I quoted is not uncommon in metropolitan areas. I've seen lines go for under $400 in highly competitive markets or twice that or more in more sparsely populated areas. You'll need to get a T1 line service quote for your business location to get an exact figure.

Depending on how close your offices or shops are located, you may be able to just plug your T1 line into a wireless router and provide service without having to pull wires to your telecom closet.

You are also not limited to T1 bandwidth. T1 lines can be bonded to give you 3, 6, 9 or even 12 Mbps. Metro Ethernet is available from 5 to 50 Mbps over copper and up to 1000 Mbps over fiber optic cabling. That should be plenty for even the most demanding medical centers or architectural and design firms, advertising agencies, and even video producers. The principle remains the same: share the bandwidth and everybody gets a price break. You make out best of all, considering that your bandwidth is free.

Cheapest T1 On The Block

You really want and need a T1 line for your business operations. But, oh, the cost. Those lines are really expensive, aren't they? Well, not if you know where to look.

The reason that T1 lines have a bad rap of costing a small fortune can be traced to their origin. This technology, called T-carrier, was invented by the telephone companies for their own use and wasn't originally intended to be sold to businesses. But then the rise of the Internet and the need for PBX trunk lines created a demand for digital transport that was a perfect match to T-carrier services such as T1 and DS3.

Since the first adopters of T1 line technology in business were large corporations, cost wasn't such a big issue. Digital communications provided a competitive advantage that couldn't be matched by smaller companies. It was a cozy relationship between the incumbent telephone companies and Fortune 500 businesses.

What upset the status quo was the entry of competitive carriers into the business bandwidth marketplace over the last couple of decades. That cracked open the door for medium size businesses to get the same T1 line services, and the same competitive advantages, as the larger enterprises. The more prices come down due to competition, the more businesses can afford to get T1 lines.

The final blow to the exclusivity of T1 services for only certain select companies has come in the last five years, with the development of an online search tool called GeoQuote (tm). This automated technology makes it possible for any business, large or small, to check availability and prices of T1 voice and data lines in a matter of a minute or so. There's no need to know the right people or have the inside scoop on who's selling T1 services for the best price right now. The GeoQuote tool will tell you that with a simple inquiry through your regular Web browser.

Want to find the cheapest T1 line on the block? Immediately? Go ahead, take a few seconds and run a GeoQuote T1 service search right now. The search box will open in another window. But you may not want to come back here once you see the results. You'll likely find the results so much more affordable than you thought that you'll be busy getting service ordered.

WAN Connection Strategies

Within the corporate environment, LAN networks have standardized on twisted pair copper and fiber optic Ethernet connectivity. But once you leave the building, it's a potpourri of telecommunication standards. How do you select the right service for your needs?

Technology has divided pretty much along two lines, so to speak. They are the traditional TDM or Time Division Multiplexing standards based on circuit switching and the newer IP or Internet Protocol standards based on packet switching. Even this division is blurred because TDM networks can transport IP services and IP networks can transport TDM services.

Core network technology may not matter unless you have a specific need. For instance, Metro Ethernet can offer you level 2 switching capability so that you can connect multiple sites around town as if they are on the same LAN.

A better approach may be to go after the lowest cost service that meets your requirements. Let's take a look at some of what's available.

T1 lines are still the best choice for many businesses that need dedicated Internet connections, point to point data exchange, or outside lines for PBX telephone systems. Yes, T1 is a TDM standard. But connecting a T1 line to a packet network is as simple as installing a managed router often supplied free by the carrier. Otherwise a plug-in CSU/DSU card may interface your router to the T1 demarcation point.

T1 has a variant called T1 PRI or ISDN PRI. This is a high capacity digital telephone trunk line that gives you up to 23 outside phone lines plus Caller ID. ISDN PRI is usually a much better deal than individual analog phone lines for more than 6 - 12 lines.

One huge advantage of T1 lines is that they are almost universally available in the U.S. This is valuable for businesses located in smaller towns or rural areas where T1 service may be all you can get. But heavy competition in metro areas also makes T1 a good choice for downtown and suburban companies. Line lease rates have plunged in recent years. Bonding lines to multiply bandwidth keeps T1 being the preferred choice for many businesses. T1 lines can also be used as SIP trunks to support enterprise VoIP phone systems using IP PBX.

DS3 and SONET are the larger TDM technology services. They use fiber optic rather than twisted pair copper for delivery. Availability is generally limited to metro areas when fiber is already "lit" or easily installed.

The direct competitor to T1 and DS3 is now Metro Ethernet, also known as Carrier Ethernet. This is inherently a packet based technology and directly compatible with Ethernet LANs. Ethernet can be delivered over copper at 10 to 45 Mbps bandwidths, but higher speeds require fiber. Where available, Ethernet WAN service is often much lower is cost than other services. It can be priced at half the cost per Mbps compared to equivalent TDM services.

MPLS or Multi Protocol Label Switching is an IP network technology that is quickly replacing older Frame Relay networks for meshed connections to multiple locations. The "multi" in MPLS means it is capable of transporting any protocol, including TDM services. Most often it is used to establish a secure private network among many business locations.

Still wondering what will work best for your company. The easy way to find out is to get a list of competitive telecom services available for your location and recommendations from experts who know the industry and aren't tied to any one particular carrier. You may be surprised at how many good options you have.

Making Money With Other People's Cell Phones

Conventional wisdom holds that cell phones are a big expense. But what if you could have the cell phone and service you want but reduce that expense to zero? What if you could even go beyond that and create a positive cash flow? There's a way to do it, with other people's cell phones.

First thing to do is to get your cell phone without spending a cent. Stay out of those cell phone stores or electronics retailers. They won't give you thing unless you fork over some money. Instead, find the type of phone you want through an online cell phone retailer such as Wirefly. Check the current special offers and pick one of the free or free after rebate cell phones. There are lots to choose from. Don't worry about paying for shipping. That's free too.

What's not free is the cost of the monthly cellular service plan. The cost of these is the same regardless of whether you buy through a bricks and mortar store or online. But it's still a substantial monthly expense even with the smaller service plans.

Since you can't get the service for free, you need to generate an offsetting income. Let's say your plan costs $59.99 per month. If you can make $59.99 each month using other people's cell phones, then you've completely offset the cost of your own service. Essentially you get your phone plus your service free.

So how can you make money from other people's cell phones? It's not by commandeering the phone they are currently using. It's by having them give you the phone or phones they don't use anymore. What you'll do is to send those old phones to a recycler who will pay you for them. The recycling cost is zero. Once again, no out of pocket expense for you. The recycler will evaluate any recent model cell phones you send them and sent you a check for the value of the phone. It's usually not chump change. Some used phones can fetch as much as $100 or even more. Most will come in less than this, but it doesn't take that many phones each month to cover your wireless expenses.

Let's try this so you can see how it works. Now that you have your new free cell phone that you just bought online, you won't be needing your previous one. Make sure that service is discontinued before you try to recycle it. Next, check the value of your used phone online and request a free prepaid shipper. When it comes, just drop your old phone and accessories in the container, seal it up and drop the package off at your local post office. A check will be on its way to you promptly.

Now that you've sold one phone, why not lots of them? What you need to do is collect old unused cell phones for recycling. You can ask your colleagues around work, canvass the neighborhood or set up a collection box at a friendly store. You might find others at yard sales or resale shops. The idea is to get them for free or at a lower cost than you can sell them for. Of course, some of the phones you'll acquire will be too old to have any value. You still send them in for recycling at no cost. You'll be doing a valuable service for the environment.

This approach is actually a proven money maker that works as a fundraiser for school and scouting groups, among others. There is no shortage of used cell phones out there. Most people get a new one every two or three years. There are literally hundreds of millions of used but valuable cell phones wasting away in desk drawers. Some of these could be paying for your wireless phone service... and then some.

Dirt Cheap Toll Free Numbers

You'd know that you'd have more business opportunities if prospective customers could phone you from anywhere without having to pay for the call. It would be even better if you could just print one toll free number on your business card and put it in your advertisements. Clients could then reach you regardless of whether you happened to be in the office or on the go. But who wants to pay a bundle every month for that service? Especially when money's tight? Well, you don't have to. Instead get yourself a dirt cheap toll free number.

So what does dirt cheap mean? You know that hosted PBX services with toll free numbers can run you $20 or $30 a month. Some forwarded toll free numbers cost this much or more. But why pay that much when you can get a full-featured toll free number for just $2 set up and $2 a month plus the cost of calls.

Don't be fooled by offers that include a number of minutes with your service. You'll pay through the nose for those minutes. Plus there could be long periods when nobody calls. You may be better off just paying 6.9 cents per minute for the time that callers actually use. That rate applies to calls from the 48 contiguous United States plus Canada. There is an additional 7 cent per minute surcharge for calls that originate from Alaska or Hawaii.

But what does full featured mean? You get to assign your toll free number to ring to whatever phone you happen to be at. That can be your office desk phone or your cell phone or some other phone you happen to be near on the road. Best of all, you can change that ring-to number any time you want by simply logging on to your own control panel online.

What if you can't take your call right away? Voice mail is included, of course. But this isn't just any voice mail. In addition to recording your caller's comments, this voice mail system will send you an email with an audio file attachment of the caller's message.

How about FAXes? Your toll free number will also receive fax messages and then send them to you as email attachments. No matter where you happen to be, you can simply check your email on a PC and get your faxes and voice mail messages. That's all included in the same pricing. No extra charge.

This dirt cheap full featured toll free number also lets you conduct conference calls, block areas that you don't want calls from, and have your Caller ID display either the caller's number or your toll free number. Just set these features the way you want them using your online account management.

All this for two bucks a month? Yes. Plus a $2 set up charge for each 888, 877, or 866 number you want. Vanity or 800 numbers are a bit more. These rates are so low that some businesses have lots of different toll free numbers so they can track their advertising or direct specific numbers to specific employees. Learn lots more about these dirt cheap toll free numbers and order yours for instant use.

MegaPath Beefs Up Last Mile Access

The big stumbling block for businesses wanting to increase their WAN (Wide Area Network) bandwidth is something called "last mile" access. Sadly, this is just what it sounds like. Network bandwidth is readily available and more cost effective than ever. That is, until you get to that last mile... the one between you and the carrier's network. So near and yet so far.

What's so special about the last mile? Aren't all miles basically the same? Not hardly. There may be a superhighway just a mile from your company. But if the only road to your plant is down a narrow gravel road full of big ruts, any trucks that move your product will be crawling that last mile. There may even be a weight limit on the old wooden bridge that limits the size of truck you can bring in. Puts a crimp in your style doesn't it?

This is the dilemma that many businesses find themselves in. The really need more bandwidth than you can get from a T1 line at 1.5 Mbps. But the high speed fiber optic networks, the information superhighways, are a mile or two away. The cost of building a fiber optic line to join the nationwide network is just too costly. So, are these businesses stuck with their narrow little pathways until they can relocate their entire operations?

Not anymore. MegaPath, a competitive carrier serving small, medium and large enterprises, has announced it is beefing up those last mile connectivity options that will increase your bandwidth without requiring construction capital. They have two attractive technical approaches, depending on where you are located.

The most available solution is called bonded T1 service. T1 lines are available for just about any business location and offer symmetrical bandwidth at 1.5 Mbps. Symmetrical means the same speed for upload and download. What you might not be aware of is that T1 lines can be bonded together to create a single larger bandwidth pipe. Dual T1 lines give you 3 Mbps. But MegaPath is now able to offer triple bonding at 4.5 Mbps and quadruple bonding at 6 Mbps. They have the equipment to do this available in around 3,000 central offices nationwide. Chances are that your business qualifies for up to 6 Mbps of dedicated data service.

Another technical approach also uses copper based wiring to avoid fiber construction costs. It is called EoC or Ethernet over Copper. MegaPath is using Hatteras Networks' EoC technology in more than 400 central offices to offer Ethernet over Copper service at 10 Mbps.

Is your company feeling pinched for bandwidth? You may be able to get the breathing room your network needs at very attractive rates. How attractive? The way to find out is to get a rapid bandwidth service quote including the new options from MegaPath and other competitive service providers.

Scrambling For Business Leads

You can't help but notice that business activity is thinning out. Fewer inquiries are coming in and fewer order commitments are being placed. What's really scary is the "Out of Business" signs that seem to be popping up in more and more store fronts. So, what do you do to hang on?

The platitudes such as "business goes in cycles" or "this too shall pass" aren't much help when you're staring at red ink on the income statement. Truly, the frozen credit markets will thaw and eventually we'll exit what's likely to be a prolonged recession. But you need a way to keep people working and cash flowing until that "rising tide lifts all ships."

There may not be any of the proverbial magic bullets around, but there certainly are things you can do rather than just wait and hope. Belt tightening is always a good thing to consider. Chances are that there are expenses that have found their way onto the books and you're not even sure why you're spending that money anymore. But you should also look at doing things to increase income as well as reduce expenses.

Here's an idea if you happen to be in a technology related sales and service business, particularly one involved with computers and networking or business telephone systems. Join a collaborative network of like-minded technology professionals to increase your sales opportunities with current customers and get warm leads for potential new customers.

This organization is called the VAR Network, VAR meaning Value Added Reseller. If you're in this line of work, you'll recognize the acronym. The VAR Network gives you a double-headed approach for increasing your business receipts. First, you have the opportunity to include telecom line services in your stable of offerings. You may feel that specializing in network routers or IP PBX systems is really as deep as you want to get into systems work. But you're leaving a lot of money on the table for someone else to scoop up. Why not grab that share of the client's budget for yourself?

I know. You don't know squat about line services and are concerned about the learning curve involved to be able to productively sell things like dedicated T1 Internet, ISDN PRI, and Metro Ethernet. Fear not. You'll be partnering with an expert at the VAR Network who knows the ins and outs of all of those services. This consultant has the tools and carrier relationships to efficiently identify the best cost offers and close the deal, including the paperwork.

What do you get out of it? In exchange for providing the line services lead to the VAR Network, you'll be rewarded with a monthly commission based on your customer's usage. That can range up to hundreds or thousands of dollars a month per client for larger enterprises. Lots of smaller customers can also result in big incomes. But you already know that.

The other side of this double-whammy is that the VAR Network will send leads to you. That's right. The VAR Network sells line services through the Telarus Master Agency, but doesn't sell or install equipment. Many clients looking for line services also are seeking upgrades to their business telephone networks or local area networks and computers. Those leads are passed on to member VARs based on location, service specialization and support of the network.

Now the best part of the deal. You pay nothing to join or maintain your membership in the VAR Network. You just need to have an established business in the right field. Telecom line service consulting and support are absolutely free. You'll share in the income generated from the leads you supply. You'll also get leads for free as they become available. If, and only if, a lead supplied by the VAR Network results in a sale are you expected to remit a small percentage of your receipts from that lead to support the network.

Does this sound like an easy and painless way to give your business an edge in this declining business environment? It doesn't come easier or more pain free. Find out for yourself. Check out the VAR Network and Sign up to become a VAR Network partner now.

Microsoft is a Phone Company?

With all the recent buzz over the Android, we know that Google is getting into the telephone business big time. But did you know that Microsoft is also in the phone business? The enterprise phone business?

Microsoft Response Point is a software based PBX telephone system that is intended for small businesses with fewer than 50 employees. Like nearly every new PBX design, this one is based on VoIP telephony with SIP for switching control. So are larger enterprise VoIP solutions. But Microsoft has targeted Response Point to companies that are small enough that they probably don't have a dedicated IT or telecom department. These companies need solutions that are easy to set up and manage, and don't require all-day training seminars to teach employees how to use their strange new desk phones.

Wow! Microsoft could be my new phone company. I can hardly wait to run out and buy the Response Point software in the box next to the Vista upgrade.

Just kidding. Response Point is sure to cause you less grief than trying to get your old Windows XP machines to dance a Vista tune and not fall over. That's because YOU won't be trying to round up the right CPU and peripherals to roll your own phone system. Response Point comes embedded in ready-to-run small business phone systems, like the ones offered by Aastra.

The AastraLink RP phone system based on Microsoft Response Point consists of three components. They are a base unit, gateway, and special IP phones designed especially for Response Point systems.

The base unit - think PC or server - runs the Response Point software. This is the brains of the system can comes with a voice activated auto-attendant, voice to email integration and easy integration with Microsoft outlook. Microsoft outlook? Remember that SIP telephones run right on your company LAN along with your computer terminals. This is one of the big advantages of enterprise VoIP. Being packet network based, they easily integrate with computer systems. Easy, that is, compared with traditional telephone systems that have proprietary hardware and software and their own unique network architecture.

The AastraLink Gateway is the interface box that connects your IP PBX system to the PSTN or Public Switched Telephone Network. Standard phone lines plug into the gateway. They are accessed as outside phone lines through the base unit connection to the gateway. Alternatively, you can buy SIP trunking telephone service from competitive carriers and not worry about connecting to the phone company yourself.

The SIP telephones, also called terminals, are the user interface to the IP PBX system. They look like standard business desk sets but are designed for easy interface to the system. No separate phone wiring is needed as they plug right into an Ethernet jack. Some, like the Aastra 57i, even have PoE or Power over Ethernet capability so that you don't need a separate power supply. A PoE phone is the network equivalent of the analog telephone that plugs into a phone jack without any other connections needed.

AastraLink's Response Point systems have the smarts built-in to make these phone systems pretty much plug and play. The system will auto-discover and auto-configure any new handsets plugged into the network. Moves, adds and changes become invisible, so you don't need a technician to come running whenever someone needs to relocate to a different desk.

How's your business phone system? Ready for an upgrade or launching a new office? Find business telephone system suppliers that can get you set up Aastra and other high quality telephone solutions at the right price.

G.ho.st as the Machine

If a really pale guy named Casper shows you a virtual computer online, you may be seeing a ghost. Not a ghost ghost. Just G.ho.st. Nothing spooky about it. It's just the Global Hosted Operating SysTem that you'll find at http://g.ho.st/

Oh, don't be such a fraidy cat. Click through and see what you can do when your operating system is online instead of sitting on your desktop.

I did. The home page looked cool so I clicked on the start button to launch the Gh.o.st virtual computer, affectionately called a VC. Hey, isn't a VC someone who funds this sort of thing? Well, anyway, the next thing that happened is that it scared my old Compaq to death. I got a script message saying the system was running slow. So I bailed out and re-launched the Gh.o.st on my newer Lenovo laptop.

Now the screen looked like a real desktop, littered with all sorts of junk including an analog clock, media player, Google search box, Yahoo! World News headlines, and a bunch of apps. There are a couple of yellow stickies saying that if you register, you can upload files to your G.ho.st Drive with 5 GB of free storage. You also get to use G.ho.st Mail and Chat that works with your favorite IM service.

I'll suggest you click on the icon that looks like a bus and take the G.ho.st Tour. It's text, not Flash or video, that describes what you'll find on the system and how you can use it. Note that this isn't a "real" computer in that you can't load any of your own software and expect it to run. The software applications are SaaS (software as a service) hosted apps that mimic typical office programs you are familiar with. There is a Bulk Uploader that looks a lot like an FTP program that lets you upload files to store or work on.

So why would you want a virtual computer if you need a physical computer to get to it? Probably the big reason is so that you can access your stuff anywhere, anytime you can get to any Internet connected computer. Log-in from home, work, or public access computer and there's your desktop just like you left it. All your files and tools are right there ready to use. You can tote your own PC or mooch one from a friend and you'll still get the same experience.

Well, sort of. As I mentioned, my almost-last-century Compaq couldn't handle the load. The FAQs recommend at least 512 MB RAM and a broadband connection of at least 1.5 Mbps. Your browser can be Microsoft IE, Firefox or Safari, but you'll need a Flash plug-in that is at least at version 8. Honestly, I thought the whole system was a little poky even with a computer that easily met the specs. But, hey, it's only in alpha deployment right now. Give an cyber specter a break!

The closest parallel to G.ho.st that I can think of is remote access software such as GoToMyPC. But with that setup you need to have your host machine running and Internet connected at all times. Otherwise there's no PC to go to. G.ho.st is out there computing somewhere in the "cloud" as they say. The ghost-boosters keep it up and running.

Get it? Ghost boosters? Yeah. Well, if you ain't afraid of no ghosts then try the guest account or register as a user and put a G.ho.st in your machine.

T1 Line as an On Ramp

You may be familiar with T1 lines as point to point connections for digital data or PBX telephone tie lines. But T1 lines also make great on-ramps for other services. Let's see why.

Nearly every business has a LAN or Local Area Network. Most also have a WAN or Wide Area Network connection. That's what lets you connect to the outside world. Your WAN connection is often an on-ramp to a larger public or private network.

A perfect example is what's called T1 dedicated Internet. Dedicated means that this T1 line is a direct connection from your business to your Internet service provider that is not shared with other users and not used for other purposes. The bandwidth of this line is 1.5 Mbps in both directions, upload and download, at all times. It gives you a responsive, reliable and predictable Internet connection.

In this case, the T1 line is acting as an on ramp to the huge public network that is the Internet. Many business find this arrangement perfectly meets their needs for Web browsing, email, and server connections. If they need more bandwidth, additional T1 lines can be bonded together to create a faster on-ramp.

T1 lines are also ideal on-ramps to private networks such as MPLS networks. An MPLS or Multi-Protocol Label Switching network is a privately run regional or national packet switched network that ties together businesses with multiple locations. Each location has a T1 line for an on ramp that's also an off-ramp, of course. The MPLS network makes sure that every location can connect to every other location with a high quality of service and a high degree of security. MPLS networks are often the most cost effective solution for multi-location businesses.

Another on ramp is the one to the public switched telephone network. T1 PRI lines are used to provide up to 23 separate outside telephone lines to a business PBX telephone system. A T1 line configured as a SIP Trunk does the same thing for enterprise VoIP phone systems. SIP trunks can also be used as on-ramps to both the public telephone network and the Internet with a single line.

What condition is your on ramp in? Does it act like one of those beat up freeway ramps that is in serious need of rebuilding? If so, you should consider new or replacement T1 line service for the qualify and reliability of service your business needs. Prices have never been better than they are right now.

Ethernet vs SONET Throw Down

Ladies and gentlemen. In this corner, the defending champion SONET fiber optic service. In the opposite corner, the challenger Carrier Ethernet. It's the battle of the century for supremacy in the world of high speed business bandwidth. Will the new guy, Ethernet, take the crown? Or will SONET remain king of the "ring"?

The term ring is especially applicable to SONET, which is generally deployed as two counter-rotating data rings over redundant fiber optic cables. The term SONET stands for Synchronous Optical NETwork. It's a fiber optic transmission system based on TDM or Time Division Multiplexing. Developed by the telephone companies to increase the capacity of their digital trunks beyond the T1 and T3 lines of the T-Carrier system, SONET remains the transport technology of choice for the incumbent telcos. The reason for the redundant rings is to implement an automatic failover mechanism. If one path fails, the other automatically picks up the traffic within 50 mSec.

The built-in protection and synchronized TDM channels make SONET ideal for carrier grade digitized telephone call trunking. But SONET can also transport packetized data including voice, video and data. One use of SONET fiber optic circuits is to transport DS1 signals for T1 lines and DS3 signals for T3 lines over long distances. They can be split off or demultiplexed at the drop off destination. If you have a long haul T1 line, chances are that it is carried at least part of the way on fiber optic channels even though your termination is twisted pair copper.

The SONET family of line rates spans OC-1 at 52 Mbps on up to OC-768 at 40 Gbps. But in practice, only a few optical carrier levels are standard and readily available. These are OC-3 at 155 Mbps, OC-12 at 622 Mbps, OC-48 at 2.5 Gbps, OC -192 at 10 Gbps and OC-768 at 40 Gbps. The higher speed services are typically used as carrier backbones and may not be available to business users.

So who is this new contender Carrier Ethernet? It's LAN Ethernet that is adapted for the WAN or Wide Area Network. Carrier Ethernet, a term meaning telecom carrier quality Ethernet service, is designed for packet switched networks and dispenses with the synchronized fixed size channels of SONET technology. It's interface is a standard Ethernet connector and can be set up for Level 3 routing or Level 2 switching. At the switching level, Carrier Ethernet simply extends your local area network to other facilities across town.

Standard Ethernet WAN services mirror the standard Ethernet LAN speeds of 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps. But some carriers, such as XO Communications, offer incrementally finer Ethernet bandwidths that include 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 200, 300, 400, or 500 Mbps.

This throw down is more than just a battle among competing technologies. It's also about cost. Ethernet claims a substantial cost advantage, mostly due to aggressive marketing by competitive carriers. At lower bandwidths, they can often use Ethernet over Copper or EoC transmission techniques to avoid having to build out costly new fiber connections. EoC is generally available within 2 to 3 miles of a carrier POP or Point of Presence, at speeds up to 45 Mbps or DS3 equivalent bandwidth.

So, does that mean that Ethernet is always a better deal than SONET? Often, but not always. In some cases, Ethernet service isn't even available, but OC3 services are well established. You should also know that the same competitive cost pressures that have made Ethernet WAN services available at lower costs have also made SONET services much cheaper than they used to be. OC3 is no longer an exotic service suitable for only Internet service providers and the largest corporations. A smaller video production company can easily require OC3 level bandwidth at 155 Mbps or Fast Ethernet at 100 Mbps. OC12 and OC48 are not beyond the reach of larger technology based companies.

So, how do you chose? The best way is to get a list of competitive quotes for the services available at your location and pick the most cost effective solution. Use our GigaPackets.com business bandwidth search tool and free consulting services to make this an easier process. Regardless of which technology reigns supreme, you'll be the true winner.

Integrated T1 Gives You Phone and Internet

As a small business owner, you want the best quality and performance you can get from your telecom services. But you can't just go out and buy what the major corporation down the street has. Well maybe not exactly the same, but pretty close.

What I mean by that is that you can have clear sounding, reliable phone service and reliable, dependable Internet service scaled for the size of your operation. That big company needs more capacity than you do because they have so many more people trying to use it. They also pay 10x to 100x more than you will.

What you don't have to compromise on is quality of service. To achieve it, you'll be using a T1 line. T1's are the industry standard for voice and data. A medium size company will likely have at least one T1 line for telephone service and one or more for dedicated Internet access. But you don't need all that. You'll do just fine with a single T1 that provides you with both telephone and Internet access.

But, wait. Aren't T1 lines set up to be telephone trunks or data lines as needed? Yes that's the usual setup. But there is another type of service called Integrated T1 that transports both phone and Internet at the same time.

How does it do that? A channelized T1 telephone line has capacity for up to 24 outside phone lines. Do you really need that many? Hardly. Half a dozen to a dozen are plenty for most smaller businesses. If that's all you need, what happens to the unused capacity? In standard T1 telephone service, those extra channels go to waste. Wouldn't it be nice if that unused capacity could be put to good use.

That's what Integrated T1 service does. You assign a certain amount of capacity, say enough for 6 to 12 outside lines, to be used for phone service. The rest is assigned for Internet service. Unlike broadband phone services, you never have to worry about your computer knocking out your phone conversations. Neither function interferes with the other.

How much Internet bandwidth do you get with this arrangement? It's very similar to DSL speeds. A T1 line runs at 1.5 Mbps, so if you use half of it for 12 outside phone lines, there is 750 Kbps available for data. If you only need 6 outside lines, you'll have over 1 Mbps for Internet access. That's more than enough for point of sale transactions, WiFi hotspots, business data transfers, Web browsing and email service.

Even better, some Integrated T1 services use what's called dynamic T1 lines. The dynamic line gives telephone calls priority, but is smart enough to know that any capacity not used for phone calls can be temporarily added to the Internet bandwidth. If no one is on the phone, the entire 1.5 Mbps is assigned to Internet speed.

Is Integrated T1 service right for your business? The cost of the service replaces both your current phone lines and Internet service, so it can be more affordable than you think. Plus you'll enjoy the benefit of having professional grade digital telecommunications service instead of some collection of services that may not work as well. Find out more about Integrated T1 and other voice and data options that are available for your business location with a simple phone or online inquiry at T1 Rex.

Times Are Tough, Cell Phones Are Free

Just about all of us are feeling the pinch these days. The business forecasts you see on TV indicate that we're heading into a recession, not out of one. That suggests that it's time to batten the hatches and start conserving cash for tough times to come. Here's one idea on how to keep hundreds of dollars in your wallet and still get the cellphone service you want and need.

Chances are that you do your cell phone shopping at an official carrier store or one of the big box office supply stores or electronics retailers. Regardless of where you drop in to check out the phones, these stores all have one thing in common. They're likely going to charge you for your cell phone.

So? Isn't that the price of getting a new model phone? You buy the phone and sign a contract for monthly service, right?

Nope. Not if you want to get the best phone deals, you don't. A little understood standard in the wireless business is that the cellular service plans cost the same regardless of where you buy them. But the price of the phone is up to the dealer. You can pay $500. You can pay $50. Or you can pay nothing for the phone. Your monthly service plan will cost the same, depending on how many minutes you need and what add-on services you sign up for.

So why would you not want a free phone? It's the same phone regardless of where you get it. You'll pay the carrier the same price for service every month. But if you shop smart, you can pay a lot less for that cell phone. You can get many models for free. Some even have cash back rebates. How's that sound?

OK, let me give show you some examples of popular phones that you can get for free or with a rebate right now. By the time you read this, the offers may have changed. That's life in the cell phone biz. But there are always some models on special offer with prices at $0 to -$50. That's $50 cash back. So here we go as of today...

What you need to do is check the current specials at Cell Phone Plans Finder and then search for the phone model you want if you don't see featured it on the front page. Or just browse around and see what catches your fancy. Your big problem is going to be picking just one.

Well, actually, you don't even have to do that. You can get a family plan and have all sorts of different phones on it. Potential savings? Hundreds? Thousands? It all depends on how sophisticated your tastes are and how many phones you order. Now stuff that money you save under the mattress or put it in the bank before you go blow it on something else.

Oh, Give Me a Home Where the Elephants Phone

"I'm sorry, the elephant isn't available. Would you care to hold the lion?"

Oh, that joke was a lot funnier back when telephones had operators... and lines. Now that about a quarter of us don't even have a landline, we'll have to come up with cellular-centric humor if we want anyone to get it.

"Hey, do you know how to make an elephant phone?"

"No?"

"Well, you start out with a three foot long plastic case." (ROSL)

That's "rolling on the Savanna laughing", just in case you wondered.

Anyway, what's inspired all of this is a recent news story called "Elephants 'Phone' Friends With Rumbles" offered by the Discovery Channel. It's about a study of how elephants find their way back to their herd when they have wandered too far away to rely on sight or smell.

Turns out that elephants have their own wireless communications based on infrasonics. This is the range of audio frequencies below human hearing but still useful to animals. In this case, 13 to 35 Hz. Elephants are so large that they can resonate to emit powerful vocalizations in that extremely low frequency range. Those rumbles can travel over a mile and a half to reach distant herd members.

Even more interesting, elephants seem to have developed a form of audible Caller ID. Scientists discovered that an elephant was more inclined to respond to a rumble if they had a close affiliation with the caller. Otherwise they might choose not to answer.

Elephants also increase the power of their infrasonic vocalizations when they have to communicate over longer distances. That's not unlike the way cell phones automatically adjust their transmitter power depending on how close to the cellular tower they happen to be.

As humans we think we are so smart inventing all this sophisticated new technology, when nature has already developed analogous systems that do essentially the same thing. Perhaps infrasonic communication isn't totally lost on people. Ever notice how you can "feel" the rumble of the pizza delivery car pulling into your driveway, even in the dead of winter with the doors and windows shut? There may be a little pachyderm packed into all of us.

If you sense that kinship, you might be interested in knowing that October is Elephant Awareness Month, with special doings related to the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. You'll enjoy the many elephants there, and at the Performing Animal Wildlife Sanctuary (P.A.W.S) in California.

Of course, if you expect to communicate with your human friends over long distances you'll want the best technology can offer in the way of wireless communications. That's what you find at Cell Phone Plans Finder. Check today's specials. Many great phones are available free, some even with cash rebates.

Eliminating the WAN Choke Point

There is often a vast difference in LAN (Local Area Network) and WAN (Wide Area Network) speeds. You notice it when you access the Internet or try to send an image or document to another location. Files that move almost instantly in-house seem to take forever to get anywhere outside of your building. This is the dreaded WAN choke point.

You're familiar with choke points in the physical world. Try exiting a superhighway onto a busy local street during rush hour. Try filling a swimming pool from the city water mains using a garden hose. Anytime a high capacity conduit is connected to a low capacity conduit things are going to slow down.

This isn't always a problem. You can get off the freeway onto a deserted country road with nothing to impede your progress. You water your plants with a garden hose and have to restrict the nozzle to prevent overwatering. As long as the lower capacity conduit has more capacity than you require, it's not a restriction.

That used to be the way business Internet connections worked. A company that wanted to initiate Internet service for its employees would install a dedicated T1 connection to its corporate network. When the Internet was new, most people weren't sure what to do with it. Then, gradually, traffic picked up from a growing number of email users and those who found it faster to do a Web search than go to the reference library. Sooner or later, demand exceeds supply and your Internet connection becomes a choke point.

What's so bad about letting supply and demand work themselves out? In the case of WAN choke points, there's potentially a big productivity loss involved as people wait for pages to load or files to transfer. If you have a group collaborating on a project and they need to all view and markup large CAD drawings, you can multiply the size of the group by the seconds or minutes lost times what you are paying them to see how much this costs.

You have the choice of either getting people to change their work habits to deal with bandwidth restrictions or simply increase the bandwidth. Yes, much of the time there is a cost increase involved. You may need to compare the cost of a faster line with the gain in productivity to justify this expense. If enough people are slowed down enough by the speed restriction, those losses add up faster than you might think.

So what can you do? An easy solution is to incrementally add more bandwidth. If one T1 line isn't enough anymore, bond in a second T1 line or a third. If you need a larger increase in bandwidth, consider a DS3 connection or perhaps one of the new Metro Ethernet services.

Don't automatically assume that you'll pay a lot more to ease that WAN choke point. Competitive line prices have come down dramatically in the last few years. If you have an older contract or haven't used a tool such as GeoQuote (tm) to find the best prices, you may be surprised to find that you can get more bandwidth for the same or less money than you are now paying.

MPLS Network Magic in the Cloud

The popular convention is to represent large networks as clouds. Data goes in at some point of the cloud and comes out another. But what goes on in-between? With MPLS networks, that magic is what ensures the integrity of your packets and gets them where they need to be, on time and at much lower costs than other transport solutions.

Let's take a peek inside one of those clouds and see how the magic works. The first thing you'll note is that MPLS networks are private networks. The big public network, the Internet, has a completely different structure. The Internet is designed to get massive numbers of packets from hundreds of millions of users from source to destination on a best effort basis. "Best effort" means no guarantees. You launch your packets and hope for the best. Most of the time they get where they are going in a reasonable amount of time. If not, that what the TCP part of TCP/IP is for. Send a packet enough times and it will reach its destination if at all possible.

So what's wrong with that? After all, the Internet is about the cheapest transport medium you can find for digital data. For non-critical applications it works just fine. Especially if you use a dedicated connection, such as a T1 line or Ethernet connection. Security on the Internet isn't so hot, but can be improved with encryption to create a VPN or Virtual Private Network.

MPLS networks are designed to address these limitations of Internet transport. Instead of being virtually private, they are private by design. An MPLS carrier manages the network and only for its paying customers. The public gets no entree. That improves security from the get-go. As a managed network, the carrier can ensure the performance of its network with enough bandwidth available to accommodate all customers all the time.

The technology of MPLS does the rest. The LS of MPLS stands for label switching. A packet enters the network though a label router or tag switch which adds a label field to the packet. That label defines source, destination and quality of service. Throughout the network, other label routers get the packet efficiently to its destination and make sure that it gets the priority specified. That's a huge advantage for real-time services such as VoIP telephone or live video. The Internet doesn't differentiate between packets, so if there is congestion or re-routing, you get jitter, latency and perhaps dropped packets.

Note that MPLS networks don't care about the IP data fields on the packets. They rely strictly on their own labels. That's where the MP comes in. MP stands for multi-protocol. An MPLS network doesn't care what protocol generated the packet. It could be IP, TDM or something else. They all get labels established on entry and removed on exit. So an MPLS networks can transport just about anything digital you can generate.

That's the magic, but who uses MPLS networks? The answer is anyone who needs to connect multiple locations and needs a combination of high quality and low cost. MPLS network solutions are considerably lower in cost compared to private point to point data lines and are an excellent replacement for older Frame Relay networks. Access to the network cloud is typically by a T1 line or Ethernet connection at each location. The network may span a metropolitan area or be nationwide.

If you have two or more business locations that need to be connected with a secure high performance network, see how affordable MPLS networking can be. The more locations you have, the more you'll save.