Ethernet VPLS Extends Your LAN Network

Typical methodologies for connecting multiple business locations have included Frame Relay, VSAT satellite terminals, Internet-based VPNs and proprietary wireline networks constructed from point to point T1 lines. Now there’s a new technology that has performance and cost advantages that make it extremely attractive for branch offices, retail franchise, medical clinics and other businesses that need connectivity among many locations. It’s called Ethernet VPLS and it’s available now.

What is Ethernet VPLS and why is it better? The VPLS acronym stands for Virtual Private LAN service. That sounds a lot like a local area network, but run by a carrier and spread over a city, state or the entire country. That’s exactly what it is. Ethernet VPLS combines the advantages of Ethernet connectivity with the geographic service footprint and security of a MPLS IP-VPN network. The result is a layer 2 WAN service that safely extends your corporate LAN wherever you want it to go.

XO Communications, one of the country’s leading competitive carriers, is offering an Ethernet VPLS service that can transport both your IP and non-IP traffic. XO has an extensive nationwide fiber optic network and is a provider of Ethernet connectivity using both copper and fiber optic options. That gives them a lot of flexibility in hooking your diverse sites together.

For instance, XO can connect each of your business locations with Ethernet over Copper with speeds from 3 to 20 Mbps, Ethernet over Fiber for speeds from 10 Mbps to 1 Gbps, and Broadband Wireless access in major metro areas with speeds from 10 Mbps to 1 Gbps. All of these access options are scalable, so you can start with the bandwidth you need today and easily expand, location by location, as business activity dictates.

The beauty of Ethernet VPLS is that you maintain control of your network just as if you owned the wiring that interconnects all of your bridged LANs. You can maintain separate networking domains as if they were on the same LAN regardless of how far they are separated.

This is a switched layer-2 network service that can be configured as point to point, point to multipoint, or multipoint to multipoint fully meshed for any to any connectivity. If you’ve put a lot of time and effort into converging your voice, video and data networks, your investment is protected by four robust classes of service. These include real time, critical, priority and standard CoS. Enterprise VoIP and video multicasting have the resources they need to deliver high quality performance.

The WAN capability is there to support anything you want to do on your network. But the cost per Mbps beats competing technologies hands down. That’s a winning combination that will likely see Ethernet VPLS become a dominant WAN networking service in the near future. Why not put it to work for you right now, before your competitors catch on? Get more information and customized Ethernet VPLS pricing quotes to support your locations and applications. It’s a complementary service, with results fast.

Ciena Takes New Bandwidth Technologies On The Road

If you happen to be near Waltham, MA today, June 29, you have an opportunity to see the latest in carrier bandwidth technology right at your doorstep. Simply step into the Ciena Innovation Lab and check out the demos of their optical, Ethernet and software solutions. Next stop is White Marsh, MD on July 15.

What’s the Ciena Innovation Lab? It’s a semi trailer chock full of the newest telecom and networking developments. Here, take a look:



If you are involved with Gigabit and Terabit bandwidth applications, you are familiar with Ciena... or should be. Certainly, fiber optic service providers keep a keen eye on developments from the Ciena labs. But now major corporations, content providers and large medical organizations need to familiarize themselves with packet-optical transport and switching systems. Today, you may be just broaching the idea of installing Gigabit Ethernet service. Tomorrow, you may well be ordering dark fiber for your own private point to point networks.

Ciena now has platforms that make deploying 40G and 100G fiber optic connections as easy as 10G. They are ready to support carrier Ethernet services, including high speed access, backhaul and aggregation. Their software suites make it easier for you to manage optical networks, Ethernet services and other high bandwidth networks services.

Is your company ready to move up to gigabit and higher levels of service? If so, you’ll benefit from a discussion with our Telarus bandwidth brokerage consultants. No charge for this service, of course. Take just a minute or so and describe your bandwidth needs in an easy online inquiry.

How to Get Lower Merchant Processing Rates

As a small business owner or franchise operator, credit card payments make up a huge percentage of your transactions. They also cost you a bundle in processing fees. To add insult to injury, some service providers aren’t much help when something goes wrong with the equipment or software. Why not do better for yourself and your business?

A merchant processing company you should look into is Elite Processing Systems. They offer an impressive combination of lower credit card processing rates combined with outstanding 24 hour US based customer service and the PCI compliant systems you need to successfully accept credit cards and more.

The more includes being able to accept personal checks without the risks presented by a traditional 4 day delay in waiting for it to clear the bank so you can breathe easy. Elite Processing Systems works with Telecheck to bring you online and POS authorization electronically.

That more also includes cash advance funding as a quick way to acquire the working capital you need. You’ll be able to get cash advances based on your credit card processing future receivables. You won’t even have to write a check. The funds will be taken back through your credit card sales.

Credit Card Processing by Elite Processing Systems a registered ISO/MSP of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. Walnut Creek CA.

What Is Lowering Gigabit Ethernet Bandwidth Pricing?

If you have recently gone out for quotes on Gigabit Ethernet bandwidth, you may have been surprised by how much prices have dropped the last few years. That’s one pleasant surprise for organizations that need higher levels of business bandwidth for cloud computing access, e-commerce, medical image transmission, video distribution and the like. But is this for real and what is driving these prices lower?

Yes, it’s for real alright. In fact, bandwidth services across the board can be had for a fraction of what you may have paid when you signed your last service contract. That applies to everything from T1 lines to DS3 connections and on up through OCx SONET/SDH fiber optic bandwidth. It also includes competing services like Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gig E. Plus multi-location cloud networks like MPLS. They’ve all dropped in price. But the cost per Mbps is often most dramatic for Ethernet services.

What’s behind the lowered prices? Two factors can be credited. First is the move from traditional switched circuit transport technologies to packet switched IP networks and services. Second is new levels of competition.

Both legacy service providers, the telephone companies, and new competitive carriers have built-out extensive networks based on IP or a networking technology that embraces IP, such as MPLS or Multi-Protocol Label Switching. You can thank the Internet for that. The enormous volume of equipment and services to support near-universal demand access to the Internet has decreased the price of Ethernet and IP networking to a fraction of what it costs for competing technologies. The entire world is going to packet switched networks based on Internet Protocol.

When every LAN is running Ethernet, it just makes sense that the most efficient way to connect all those local area networks is with an Ethernet connection. Ethernet over Copper lets you do this from typically 3 Mbps on up to around 50 Mbps. Ethernet over Fiber is good for 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, and even 10 Gigabit Ethernet. Gigabit Ethernet is becoming a requirement for medium and large companies depending heavily on high productivity enterprise software or distributing media content, such as video. At the very highest levels, even 10 GigE is no longer out of the question.

The move from legacy telco technologies to IP based fiber optic networks has brought new players into the marketplace for WAN networking services. These competitive carriers have built their own regional or national fiber optic networks and established colocation facilities and points of presence in most major cities, even some mid-size cities. They can often bring their own fiber into business locations and bypass the telephone companies completely. Now instead of one option for service, you may have several or more even at the Gigabit Ethernet level. That spells competition and competition leads to lowered prices.

Could your organization benefit from the recent cost reductions in high bandwidth networks services? Don’t shake your head no until you check current prices and availability for Gigabit Ethernet bandwidth services and other bandwidth offerings. At the very least, your next service lease could cost you less than the one you have now.

USA Digital Offers Comprehensive Call Center Services

Call centers and company contact centers have special requirements for the high volume telephony services they use. USA Digital serves this market with a suite of high performance cost effective telecom services.

USA Digital Communications Inc., often called USA Digital for short, is a licensed, certified carrier in all 50 states. Since founding in 1991, their business has been known for rapid growth and customer retention. Wouldn’t a lot of companies like to claim that? The secret to USA Digital’s success may be summed up as excellent customer service combined with an extensive range of services to support both voice and data needs.

Call center operations are a special focus for USA Digital. It starts with digital line services from T1 through OC12. T1 is a popular service and provided by many carriers. However, not all of those T1 services are optimized for cost on high volume calling. For instance, USA Digital offers initial six second billing minimum. That’s typical in the industry. But then USA Digital billing switches to one second increments. That alone can save you 30% in the cost of the minutes you use.

Another big saver is 4 digit versus 2 digit rounding. Those decimal points might seem arcane, but in high volume calling minor fractions of a second add up to big money. That’s especially true if 4 digital rounding is combined with low dedicated interstate rates on T1 service.

USA Digital has a service team experienced in provisioning voice lines, PRI’s, CO meet-point circuits, cross connects and SS7 links. That same experience is applied as you move up the circuit class to DS3 (T3) trunks and into the fiber optic services from OC3 to OC12. These OCx connections are truly business carrier class services needed by the largest call center operations and requiring the highest levels of expertise for support. An OC3 gives you the capacity of about 3 DS3’s and OC12 is the bandwidth of 4 OC3’s or 12 DS3’s. USA Digital can deliver OC3s in the form of 3 DS3’s that may be separated into individual T1 services.

In addition to bandwidth, dedicated outbound services are a specialty of USA Digital. They offer FTC telemarketing sale rule and do not call services to make sure you are in compliance with government regulations for outbound call centers. Their do not call services are capable of blocking 100% of calls registered to both state and national do-not-call lists. In addition, USA Digital provides customized Caller ID Service so that you can communicate appropriate caller information over your service lines.

USA Digital’s services are appropriate for in-house customer service contact centers up through major independent call centers and carriers, including ILEC, CLEC and wireless. Beyond traditional switched circuit voice trunks, they also support VoIP (SIP, H3223), point to point dedicated lines, and MPLS networks for linking multiple business locations.

Can you benefit from business telecom services like these? If so, you’ll want to get customized telecom service pricing and consultation for USA Digital and other competitive service providers as soon as possible. You could be looking a major cost savings.

MPLS VPN Advantages

MPLS VPN networks are more and more in demand by companies needing to link multiple geographically diverse business locations. These may be across town, across the country or around the world... or any combination. Let’s take a look at why MPLS networks are becoming so popular.

Branch offices, retail franchise operations, warehouses, factories and medical centers are no longer isolated entities. Once, the public telephone system was enough to tie related locations together. That phone system was also pressed into service to transmit information rapidly using FAX and then dial-up Internet access. Broadband Internet using a dedicated high bandwidth wireline service followed for direct digital transmission. Other dedicated lines were used as secure point to point connections for sharing sensitive business documents.

Some companies desired more complex networking arrangements, linking every location to every other location in a fully meshed wide area network. One way to do that is to roll your own star network with point to point dedicated lines to the main office. Frame Relay networks came about as a way to outsource all that networking and the high cost of so many dedicated lines. But Frame Relay was never planned to run at the bandwidths we need today.

What MPLS VPN networks do is provide a private networking solution that outsources the problem of connecting many diverse locations. The cost of operating the network is shared among the user base, which makes it very cost effective for each user compared to running their own completely private network.

Unlike the Internet, a MPLS VPN has security built-in and performance characteristics of the network are carefully controlled. This is especially important for companies that want to converge their voice, data and video networks into a single network that can carry all traffic. There are big cost advantages in network convergence. But it’s all for naught unless you can guarantee quality of service for all your traffic. MPLS networks have Class of Service mechanisms to ensure that bandwidth, latency, jitter and packet loss are carefully controlled.

MPLS VPN security is based on using a proprietary tag or label switching protocol in place of standard IP routing. As soon as IP packets are received by the provider edge router, they are inspected and a MPLS label is attached. It’s that label that is used to route the packets while they are on the network. It’s removed as they exit the network. It’s like the MPLS network is speaking a foreign language within its service footprint.

MPLS networks are also easily scalable. If you build your own network from T1 lines or DS3 services, it can be a nightmare to upgrade bandwidth across the network. With an MPLS solution, you simply request additional resources from the service provider. You can also add or delete service locations much easier than you may be able to with long haul point to point line services. You only need an access connection to the MPLS “cloud” which is at the service provider’s nearest point of presence.

Can an MPLS VPN network be advantageous to your business? Get recommendations and competitive price quotes for MPLS VPN services now.

Fiber Ethernet WAN Bandwidth Advantages

Large businesses and other larger organizations generally require more bandwidth than is available through T1 lines or other broadband services that can be provisioned over copper twisted pair. Fiber optic connections can provide nearly unlimited bandwidth, but what is the most cost effective service?

If you are a current user of fiber optic bandwidth, you are probably leasing a SONET/SDH service such as OC3, OC12, or OC48 for your wide area networking needs. These are traditional telecom services that were originally developed for the telephone companies to carry large numbers of telephone calls. They are circuit switched channelized networks that have been adapted to transport today’s demand for high data bandwidth connections.

A newer service that is offering serious competition to the legacy telco services is Ethernet over Fiber or EoF. It’s a packet-switched network that transports Ethernet at the layer 2 switching or layer 3 routing level. Within metropolitan areas, this service is known as Metro Ethernet. Over long distances, it is called Carrier Ethernet or Long Haul Ethernet. Just about all bandwidths are available, but generally you’ll find fiber Ethernet being used to carry 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet, 1 Gbps Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gbps 10 GigE. Even high bandwidths, including 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps, are used for carrier backbone networks.

One advantage of fiber Ethernet is that it is scalable. You may start out with 100 Mbps service but quickly find out that you need more bandwidth. With traditional SONET services, there can be long delays in upgrading your service to the next level. There may also be a big jump in bandwidth and cost to get to that next level. OC3 gives you 155 Mbps. But OC12, the next readily available increment, runs at 622 Mbps.

Fiber optic Ethernet can easily scale up to the limit of the installed port. For instance, if you have a port that is capable of 1,000 Mbps, you don’t necessarily have to buy that much bandwidth. It’s common to order a fraction of the port’s capability, say 100 Mbps and then upgrade to 200 Mbps when demand justifies such a move. Often this can be done with only a phone call to your Ethernet service provider. Only when your demand exceed the 1,000 Mbps capacity of the port will new equipment need to be installed.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of fiber Ethernet services is cost savings. In additional to the traditional telephone companies, there are numerous competitive carriers that have their own regional or nationwide fiber optic networks and points of presence. These carriers can build-out a fiber connection to your building. It may not be that expensive if you can guarantee a high enough bandwidth level to justify the construction. You’ll find the monthly lease rate attractive, too. They are often only a fraction of what you’d pay for equivalent OCx services.

How can you determine if fiber Ethernet services are the best option for your business or organizational needs? You can get a quick answer with multiple vendor quotes and recommendations now using the Fiber Ethernet Services Inquiry form that you’ll find at Ether Rabbit. It’s fast service on fast Ethernet services.

Find The Ethernet Internet Connection

Are you interested in more bandwidth for your business, but concerned about the cost? You may be able to get just what you want with an Ethernet Internet connection.



Ethernet Internet connections are something new. Certainly, we’ve all been using Ethernet on our local area networks for as long as we can remember. The Internet itself is an IP service that is very compatible with your LAN Ethernet. The odd protocol in-between has been the telecom services available to link to the Ethernet itself.

You probably have T1 or DS3 service as your network access connection. Each of these requires a special CSU/DSU or router interface card at each end of the connection. These units and their associated software perform a protocol conversion and provide the proper signal interface to standard network Ethernet ports. But with Ethernet connections, none of that is needed. It’s Ethernet all the way. How do you connect to the Internet? How about just plugging into a standard RJ-45 connector?

In addition to simplicity of connection, Ethernet WAN or Wide Area Network services are also generally cheaper than T1 lines or DS3 bandwidth. In many areas, you can now get 3 Mbps Ethernet for the same price as 1.5 Mbps T1. 10 Mbps Ethernet is very popular for small to medium size businesses. It can be had for what T1 lines cost just a few years ago.

Ethernet Internet connections are also scalable. You can get bandwidths from 1 Mbps up to 1 Gbps. The lower speeds, from 1 Mbps to about 50 Mbps, can be provided over existing twisted pair copper telco cables. For the higher speeds, you’ll need a fiber optic connection. Those are also highly affordable compared to what you’ll pay for traditional telecom services at that level.

Are you interested in how you can increase your bandwidth and perhaps even save money at the same time. Take a minute now and use the Ethernet Internet Finder to get connection prices and availability for your business location.

So Many Free Phones Online

Your old cell phone is looking pretty shabby after two years. Even if you’ve kept it nice and shiny in a leather case, the functional capability just doesn’t begin to compare with what’s available now. You want one of those new models, don’t you? Well, before you fall into the trap that high-tech cell phones have to cost a bundle, take a look at what you can get for free from Cell Phone Plan Finder.



If you squint, you might be notice something amazing in that screen shot. All but one of the top phone models this week are available FREE. That’s right. There’s no need to shell out for a new cell phone when you order it with a new service plan online. That is, if you know where to look. Try Cell Phone Plan Finder right now and see for yourself.

These phone are no entry level basic phones, either. Look what you can get for free:

Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Storm2
BlackBerry Bold 9700
T-Mobile Nokia Nuron
Verizon Wireless Droid Eris by HTC
AT&T Samsung Mythic
T-Mobile Motorola Cliq XT
AT&T Motorola Backlip
Sprint BlackBerry Curve

What’s the one hottest selling phone that isn’t free? It’s the Verizon Wireless Droid by Motorola. For that, you’ll have to shell out all of $19.99.

Do any of those deals sound like what you had in mind for your next phone? They’re all available as of this writing at Cell Phone Plan Finder. You can review images of each phone and all the specifics at this site.

Here’s a bonus feature. If you’d like to keep shopping, you can check all the available phone at the “Shop Now” tab. Or, you can select the “Free Phones” tab and just see the phones that are free when you order them with a wireless service plan. There are new models available every week, so be sure to bookmark that site and come back whenever the mood strikes. You’ll be surprised by what you can get for free online.

EVPL Ethernet Virtual Private Line Service

You are probably familiar with private line services for business. A private line is one where you have exclusive use. An analog telephone line is a private line. So is a T1 voice or data line. Now there is something new is the mix. It’s the VPL or Virtual Private Line.

Telephone lines weren’t always private. Remember the party line? Decades ago, several houses in a neighborhood would be connected to the same physical line. If you picked up your phone to make a call, you might hear one of your neighbors already engaged in conversation. In the pre-Twitter days, listening-in on other phone conversations was often a form of amusement.

That lack of privacy is long gone for telephones. But shared digital services exist today, especially with public access Internet. No, you can’t casually eavesdrop on your neighbors email or Web activities, but if some of the users start heavily downloading large files, your Internet service will slow down. There are also tools available that allow anyone to monitor everything going over a particular WiFi hotspot. The whole Internet is one big party line in the sense that you can’t be sure who’s monitoring the traffic and what they might be doing with information they skim.

It’s the security risk and the lack of consistent bandwidth that have driven businesses to private line service. T1 lines are private lines. They offer the advantages of rock solid 1.5 Mbps bandwidth and exclusive use of the line. The disadvantage is that you pay for that line even when traffic is light or non-existant.

Ethernet also offers a private line service called EPL. It works like T1 in that it is a physical line connection between you and your service provider. The difference is that the protocol is Ethernet and you can often get scalable bandwidth, typically 10 Mbps.

If you have a private line service, why would you want a virtual private line service? For one reason, you may want private lines running from your headquarters out to a number of branch offices. With dedicate private lines, you need separate physical circuits for each of these lines. You pay for the exclusive full time use of each circuit and there may or may not be enough pairs of wire into your headquarters office to give you the number of private lines you desire.

Ethernet Virtual Private Line service, EVPL, uses a single physical copper or fiber circuit to connect you to the service provider. Within that circuit are multiple EVCs or Ethernet Virtual Connection. This is not a party line arrangement. Each EVC carries its own traffic to and from another location without any cross-talk or interference from other EVCs.

The power of EVPL is not only that you only need one network interface at each of your facilities, including headquarters, but that those virtual connections can be extended to other cities or states over the provider’s MPLS core network. The MPLS is a cloud network that carries traffic for many users, but the integrity of each user’s virtual circuit is maintained from point to point regardless of distance.

EVPL is also a switched layer 2 service, which means that you can use it to extend your LAN network across town or across the country. It’s the simplest way to bridge multiple LANs when they are not located in the same facility.

Can EVPL service be of benefit for your organization? Find out with a quick inquiry about Ethernet Virtual Private Line service. Our expert Telarus consultants will be happy to get you price comparisons and service level agreements so you can make the best decision for your company.

IP VPN vs MPLS VPN

Security is an issue anytime you send data into a cloud network. One way to ensure that your data cannot be observed or tampered with is to build your own WAN network from point to point private lines. Another approach is to use a virtual private network that runs on resources that you don’t have exclusive use of. That’s what is meant by a VPN.

The beauty of using dedicated private line connections is that you are in control of both access and resource utilization. You need to manage bandwidth demand and packet priority. What you don’t have to worry about is someone else crowding you for resources. There is no one else. If you are really concerned about malicious parties tapping into your line surreptitiously, you can chose to encrypt the data while it traverses the WAN connection. That’s the ultimate in network security. It’s also the highest cost approach.

What’s attractive about VPN solutions is that they are much less expensive to lease and require fewer resources on your part. Both the cost and resource savings come from sharing the facilities with other parties. The Internet is a prime example of how massive utilization can drive down costs. If you want to really minimize costs, a shared access connection, such as DSL or Cable broadband, is the cheapest approach by far.

The same things that make the Internet cheap also make it insecure. Anybody and everybody worldwide can connect to the Internet for what you are paying or less. Perhaps they’re using a public library or WiFi hotspot network without paying a cent. Many of these networks make no effort to even verify user identity. It’s the perfect breeding ground for mischief makers and criminal activities.

Fortunately, there is a way to secure your data as it traverses the Internet. The trick is encryption. You encrypt your data packets using a key that only you know. Anyone else who has access to your data stream sees only gibberish. A popular standard for doing this is called IPsec for IP security. It requires hardware and/or software that you manage at each location for the encryption/decryption process.

IPsec lets you create a virtually private network out of the Internet, a completely public network. This is generally what is meant by the term IP VPN. One big advantage of this IP VPN approach is that laptop computers can be configured with this system to give corporate access to remote or home workers. All that’s needed is the VPN enabled computer and a broadband Internet connection.

While the Internet is cheap, it offers no guaranteed performance. You take your chances on network congestion, packet corruption, latency and jitter. File transfers generally work fine, but voice and video can degrade without warning. Many businesses want a more reliable network to connect their branch offices, warehouses, retail locations, and so on.

MPLS networks come to the rescue as an improved form of virtual private network. The MPLS network doesn’t have public access, but it is a shared resource. Your costs are reduced compared to dedicated private lines because the cost of regional, national or international connections are amortized across the total user base. What makes MPLS networks a VPN solution is that your data connections are essentially tunneled through the cloud wrapped in proprietary routing labels. You define your connections and the network operator instructs the MPLS network on how to route your packets.

MPLS networks are often referred to as MPLS VPN because they are inherently virtually private. Connections to the network tend to be through dedicated private lines, such as T1 or Ethernet. If you want an even higher level of privacy, you can choose to encrypt your data while it traverses the MPLS network. In addition to improved security compared to the Internet, MPLS networks offer performance guarantees for bandwidth, jitter, latency and packet loss. That makes MPLS VPN a popular choice for mission-critical business applications.

Do you have a need to connect multiple business locations? Which type of VPN makes the most sense for your needs? Is it IP VPN or MPLS VPN? One easy way to sort out the options is to get complimentary network consultation and price quotes through our Affordable VPN site. You may well be spending far more than you need to for the performance and security you desire.

Metro Ethernet vs T1 Lines

Small and medium size businesses typically use T1 lines or multiple T1 lines to provide reliable broadband connectivity. But now there’s another option that you should consider for higher bandwidth at lower prices. That’s Metro Ethernet.

Metro Ethernet service is available in most metropolitan areas. Hence, the name “metro.” Also, like the name implies, this is a switched Ethernet protocol compatible with what you are running on your local area network. That makes it easy to connect from your network to your Metro Ethernet connection. You simply plug into the Ethernet jack from the service provider and you are connected to the wide area network. With T1 lines, you need a special interface card that contains the CSU/DSU circuitry to connect with that technology or a stand-alone T1 CSU/DSU with an RJ-45 network output.

Both T1 lines and Metro Ethernet services can be configured to provide point to point private lines between business locations. They can also be used as access network connections to the Internet. Both give you dedicated Internet access with assured bandwidth and availability.

In addition, Metro Ethernet can be set up as a multi-point service to connect several business locations on the same network. This can be a level 2 switched Ethernet service that ties your branch office and main office LANs together in one larger bridged network. You can create larger networks using T1 lines, but they are inherently connections from one location to another. You’ll have to build a star or mesh network yourself.

What about bandwidth? T1 lines are inherently fixed at 1.5 Mbps each. The way to get higher levels of bandwidth is to incrementally add more lines through a process called bonding. For instance, 2 T1 lines gives you 3 Mbps, 4 lines will provide 6 Mbps, 6 lines gives 9 Mbps, and so on.

Ethernet services are also available in a variety of bandwidth options from 1 Mbps through 10 Gbps. Small and medium size businesses will typically opt for 3 to 10 Mbps options. An advantage of Ethernet is that it is scalable up to the fastest speed the connection will handle. You can start out with 3 Mbps bandwidth and upgrade to 10 Mbps or 20 Mbps, often with only a phone call to your provider.

T1 is a wireline service. It is based on two sets of twisted pair copper telco wires. That makes T1 available nearly everywhere you can get phone service. At the lower bandwidths, Ethernet is also provisioned over twisted pair copper wire. A different modulation scheme is used to gain higher bandwidths using multiple copper pair. You may be able to get up to 50 Mbps Ethernet over Copper. The upper limit is distance sensitive, so the closer you are to a carrier’s nearest point of presence, the higher bandwidths you can get.

When fiber optic connections are available, the higher Ethernet bandwidths are readily available. Medium size businesses commonly use 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps connections, with larger corporations installing 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps fiber optic Ethernet services.

How do prices compare? The price of T1 lines has dropped dramatically in recent years and can be had for under $400 per month in many areas. For about the same cost, you can get twice the bandwidth with 3 Mbps Ethernet. For what you may be paying on an older T1 line contract, you may be able to upgrade to 10 Mbps Ethernet and get the bandwidth you need for today’s demanding business applications.

Ethernet sounds good, but how can you find out which Ethernet bandwidth services are available for your location or locations? The easy way is use the quick Metro Ethernet Service finder at Ethernet Today. See if nearby buildings are already lit for Metro Ethernet service and get quotes for competing service providers. You may be surprised how affordable the new Ethernet services really are.

Fiber Optic DWDM Up to 100 Gbps Per Wavelength

The incredible growth of bandwidth demand continues unabated. Odd, perhaps, in these soft economic times. It’s the proliferation of video and especially high definition video that has dramatically increased network bandwidth requirements, including metro and long haul WAN networks. Now a new benchmark has been achieved at 100 Gbps per wavelength in DWDM or Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing fiber optic systems.

It wasn’t all that long ago that we were hearing of the move from 10 Gbps to 40 Gbps channels. Alcatel-Lucent is offering a new upgrade module that operates at both 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps using a single optical carrier. It’s available in their 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS).

What does it take to achieve such speeds on existing fiber that was intended for 10 Gbps transmissions? After all, you can’t exactly rip up all that installed fiber and lay new cables just to up the bandwidth. Also complicating the design is that in wavelength division multiplexing not all wavelengths will be scheduled for simultaneous upgrade. What’s needed in an upgrade that won’t interfere with existing 10 Gbps and 40 Gbps signals nor demand larger amounts of rack space and power.

Alcatel-Lucent has met these design goals with a new electro-optics engine that depends heavily on digital signal processing and better modulation and detection techniques for the optical signal. It starts with a change from amplitude shift keying (ASK) to phase shift keying (PSK). With a constant amplitude, the signal has better resilience against non-linear effects in the fiber. Both two-phase-state and four-phase-state coding schemes can be used to load more information on the signal. They then double the bit rate again without increasing the symbol rate by adding PDM or polarization division multiplexing on the same signal.

As you probably guessed, transmitting more information on the same wavelength has a price. That price is sophistication of the electronics. Coherent detection uses a local oscillator mixed with the optical signal to produce interferences that give an output of phase, amplitude and polarization to the digital signal processor. Some heavy duty number crunching allows the DSP to compensate for linear distortions in the fiber while it recovers the bit information.

Alcatel-Lucent proved all this out last fall during a field trial in Spain, by transmitting 112 Gbps per channel along with 40 Gbps and 10 Gbps channels on a 1088 km link between Madrid and Merida via Seville, as described in their technology white paper, “Next-generation Electro-Optics Technology with Coherent Detection”.

Ciena has a competing system, the OME or Optical Multiservice Edge 6500 that also runs at 100 Gbps. These two companies should set the standard at 100 Gbps... at least for awhile. You know that whenever there is competition, there will be the competitive spirit to take things to the next level. What is that? 200 Gbps? 500 Gbps? 1 Tbps?

Service providers worldwide are in a scramble to provide higher speed services at lower costs. Prices have dropped so much in the last few years that you can probably afford more bandwidth than you think. Why wonder when you can get high bandwidth fiber optic service quotes quickly and easily. It only takes a minute to inquire, so why not take that minute right now?

What’s the Difference Between WiMAX and WiFi

The names sound similar. There’s WiMAX and WiFi. Does the MAX mean that WiMAX is just a more powerful version of WiFi? In a way, you could think of WiMAX as a broadband service that creates a giant hotspot. In fact, a hotspot that covers an entire city and can be used inside buildings and cars. But WiMAX is actually more like 3G cellular broadband than the ubiquitous WiFi routers or hotspots. Have a look at this video to see what WiMAX is all about.



WiMAX is a powerful wireless standard that is being deployed all over the world to provide wireless broadband service for both fixed and mobile computers. In more and more cities in the US, WiMAX is being installed on those old analog TV channels that were sold in last year’s spectrum auction. No, your old tube TV won’t pick it up and give you broadband. You’ll have to subscribe to CLEAR WiMAX 4G wireless broadband service. It’s fast, reasonably priced and lets you use the same account for both desktop and laptop PCs.

MPLS Networks In Demand And Competitive

What’s the hottest telecommunications service that you may be missing out on? It’s MPLS networks. They’ve become highly in-demand and the source of competition among competitive carriers. Here’s what you need to know and how you can check to see if an MPLS network can save your company money.



What’s driving the proliferation of MPLS networks is that enterprise applications are becoming more sophisticated and more dependent on connectivity among multiple locations. There are big cost savings to be hand through network convergence, enterprise VoIP and mission critical processes running on high throughput server farms. But for these benefits to be realized, you need WAN connections that are a solid as your company LAN.

The Internet isn’t up to it. True, the worldwide connectivity of the public Internet is unmatched. But network performance leaves a lot to be desired. Security is certainly an issue. Look at the efforts you need to put up to prevent your systems being infected by malicious bots and viruses. Beyond that, there is no promise of predictable performance. Bandwidth, path congestion, latency, jitter, corrupted and dropped packets are all up for grabs. That’s the reason TCP/IP was chosen as a data transfer protocol in the first place. If a packet doesn’t succeed at traversing the Internet at first, simply try, try again.

Such inconsistency can be tolerated for Web pages, email and many data transfers. Even the security issue can be managed with encryption. But time sensitive applications like real-time voice and video need better treatment. Who wants to get off the public switched telephone network and risk garbled and dropped phone calls? Could any call center survive with those problems?

The need for controlled and predictable network performance is what promoted the growth of private network solutions, such as Frame Relay. But Frame Relay is a technology who’s time has come and gone. It’s too expensive and, for the most part, too low in bandwidth for today’s needs. What’s replacing Frame Relay is MPLS.

MPLS or Multi-Protocol Label Switching networks are privately run networks that only serve their customer’s needs. Those needs typically demand secure point to point and multipoint connections with Class of Service (CoS) to make sure voice, video and data all have the network resources they need. Latency, jitter and packet loss are minimized. Bandwidth is sufficient to support all network requirements. If more customers come onboard, more resources are deployed to ensure quality performance for everyone.

MPLS services can be configured as point to point or fully meshed any-to-any connectivity. You specify how you want to connect and your service provider sets it up. New locations are easy to add or change. That makes MPLS networking an excellent option for businesses with many branch offices or retail locations. Two-way VSAT satellite has been the private networking solution for many retail stores, restaurants, gas stations and so on. But satellite bandwidth is limited, sometimes lost during heavy weather, and the cost isn’t necessarily cheap. It’s time to take a look at MPLS to see if this option makes more sense going forward.

MPLS Networks Today is a new service that makes it easy to get consultation and pricing for your multi-location network needs. With a quick inquiry, you’ll be connected to a team of expert consultants who have access to many MPLS service providers and access networks. Competition among IP network carriers with national and international service footprints has become intense. That means you’ll get highly competitive quotes that may be much lower than what you think this type of service will cost. Even if you aren’t currently in the market to upgrade your existing network, it could be well worth your while to check MPLS network pricing and availability. There’s a good chance you could be saving money with an MPLS solution.

Telx Minimizes Latency WIth Colocation Near Carriers

If latency is important to your applications, you want to be as close as possible to your service providers. Why? Because no matter how fast your equipment runs, the lower limit to latency is the propagation of the the signal itself. In a vacuum, that’s a millisecond per 186 miles. Through copper or fiber, it just gets longer. Add-in a collection of routers and switchers and it gets a lot, lot longer. Think about being right next to your service provider with nothing but a short link in-between. How can you do that? Think Telx.

Telx is a colocation and interconnection company. They specialize in putting customers and service providers in close proximity. It starts with having colocation centers in 9 states with 15 sites. These are strategically located in key locations near media hubs, cable landings, fiber paths and exchanges. There are 4 locations in the New York Metro Area, two in Chicago, two in Dallas, three in California, including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Santa Clara, and others in Atlanta, Miami, Phoenix and Charlotte.

Telx prides itself on having a network-neutral environment that supports over 750 telecommunications carriers, ISPs, content, cloud and SaaS (Software as a Service) providers. They already have over 28,000 direct connections. What this does is put your business in close proximity to the services you seek. Latency is certainly minimized by all being in the same facility or at least on the same backbone network, but cost is also minimized. With so many services just a patch cord away, you can get excellent prices on bandwidth and other IT services.

If your needs are critical and your demands high, you may well benefit from getting colo rack space in a Telx facility. They are all set up to support your rack, cabinet or cage with highly reliable power and cooling. Most facilities can provide you with 120v 2089v, 480v AC and -48v DC power.

In addition to space, power, HVAC and security, Telx has technicians available to support installations, turn up and provisioning of network equipment and circuits, right down to server reboots. They also have something called a “Virtual Xchange” that offers circuit multiplexing and demultiplexing, protocol conversions, law conversions and other grooming solutions. Their carrier hotel Meet Me Room encompasses the entire colocation center, with a passive and secure area called a Meet Me Area for customer interconnections via cross connects.

Network services are available that go way beyond mere bandwidth connections. There is video exchange, Internet exchange, managed security services and cloud computing as network enabled services.

Are your network and computing needs critical enough that minimizing latency offers a significant performance advantage, or are you just looking at colocation services as an opportunity to get better deals on bandwidth and minimize support operations at your own facility? If so, you could benefit by getting competitive quotes for server colocation services.

Dark Fiber Network Expansion Underway

If there is any doubt that we are a bandwidth addicted society, it should be removed with the announcement that a major dark fiber network project has been launched by Allied Fiber. When finished, it will circle the US perimeter with 548 dark fibers and 300 tower sites.

Fiber optic communications is coming into its own, and this time it’s likely here to stay. Back in the 1990’s, thousands of miles of fiber optic cable were buried in anticipation of a telecommunications revolution that fizzled along with the technology sector in general. There is still lots of unlit fiber laying quietly in the ground, but it’s probably going to get lit sooner rather than later. That telecom revolution looks to be on again.

The original fiber optic cables were installed to support telephone calls. Voice services are the least of the demand for bandwidth anymore. Data is on the rise and rising, but video is the killer app. By that, I mean the app that will kill your network bandwidth faster than anything. Video has morphed from NTSC analog television to HDTV, with 3D starting to gain a foothold. It’s not just television, either. Video means YouTube, Netflix, Telepresence, and mobile. The proliferation of all types of video services have necessitated special content delivery networks that offload the Internet up until the last mile service provider.

The traditional T1 lines that backhaul cellular towers are just about out of capability, now that every smartphone has a data service and everyone wants to download apps on the fly and watch video content while on the go. The next generation of phones will have 2 cameras, one facing out for taking pictures and recording video clips and the other facing the user for 2-way video conferencing. There’s a new bandwidth demand that far exceeds the traditional voice conversation. It’s just as expensive to bury new copper to meet the demand as it is to bury fiber optic cables, so new backhaul will be over fiber.

Independent service providers, content delivery networks, major corporations, medical center networks and scientific research labs are among those users who find that leasing or owning dark fiber assets give them the bandwidth they need, when they need it. Dark fiber is just what it sounds like. It’s glass fiber strands within a cable bundle that haven’t been “lit” or connected to terminal equipment yet. Without a laser light shining through their core, they are truly “dark.” But those who have access to dark fiber, can choose what equipment to connect for the bandwidth and protocols they want to support. If you need more bandwidth down the road, you can use the same fiber by simply upgrading modules in your terminal equipment.

Do you need the flexibility of being able to completely manage your wide area network down to the very terminal equipment at each end? If so, you may want to take a closer look at dark fiber as the most flexible way to connect between locations. Prices are lower than they’ve ever been. You might be surprised by how affordable dark fiber is in special circumstances. Let our Telarus bandwidth consultants consider your applications and offer you an array of solutions that include dark fiber network services.

A New Edge On Private IP Networks

So many companies have multiple business locations today, that IP network options have become cheaper and more available than ever before. A major player in this space is New Edge Networks, headquartered in Vancouver, Washington. New Edge specialized in private IP-based WANs (Wide Area Networks) that don’t use the public Internet. That gives them the edge on quality and performance in linking multiple business locations.

Why not the Internet? The largest network in the word certainly has proliferated over the last few decades. It connects just about everyone, everywhere on Earth at reasonable connection costs. That’s its advantage as a general purpose communications network and its limitation as a serious business network. Anyone and everyone can and do send just about anything and everything there is through the Internet. With network neutrality mandated, your critical transaction data gets exactly the same treatment as somebody on the other side of the globe Tweeting what they had for lunch.

The need for dependable performance, security and availability is what makes private networks attractive. Private networks are just that. They are privately owned and operated. There is no public access. Being a private entity, they are free to establish classes of service to guarantee that latency sensitive applications like voice and video conferencing have the priority to ensure low jitter and latency for optimum performance. New Edge, for instance offers six classes of service (CoS) on their network with service level agreements for each.

Strict control of network parameters makes possible the long desired goal of network convergence. Convergence merges separate data, voice and video networks into one single network that supports them all. Enterprise VoIP offers productivity features and cost savings, especially on a converged network. But voice is fragile, and your telephone calls can quickly turn to garbled mush on a “best effort” network like the Internet. Video conferencing, including telepresence services, also has great productivity and cost saving value. Like voice, real-time two-way video is fragile and breaks up with the slightest provocation. You need a solid network to support these high performance communication tools.

MPLS or Multi-Protocol Label Switching private networks, a specialty of New Edge Networks, give your business the opportunity to connect multiple locations on one fully meshed private network. Each location only needs an access network connection to the MPLS “cloud” network. New Edge offers a variety of connection options that include T1 lines, Ethernet, wireless, and even DSL.

Since most small and midsize businesses don’t have large full-time IT staffs to manage wide area network services, New Edge Networks offers full network management services, including the critical LAN/WAN interconnection. This lets companies concentrate on their core business activities while knowing that their wide area network is being well taken care of.

Does your company have more than a couple of business locations? If so, private IP networks may work to your advantage. Find out how you can improve performance and perhaps save money at the same time with high value MPLS network services from New Edge and other top tier service providers.

Computer Recycling Easier Than Ever

If you are like most of us, you likely have half a dozen or more computers just at home. How many are you really using? Maybe one favorite and another as backup? The others just don’t have the processing power, memory or disk space to be a pleasure to use with the latest software versions. So, do you think it’s better to leave them scattered around the place or would you like to get paid to recycle your old computer and monitor?

Computer recycling is a fairly new phenomena. Just a few years ago, your choices were to find a spot on the basement shelves for the old machine or toss it in the trash. But there is new awareness of the environmental dangers posed by millions of personal computers now buried in landfills. So, many communities have recycling days where you can haul in your old unwanted electronics and they will ship what they collect off to a recycler. This is quite an improvement over having no options, but why give away or throw away something that still has cash value. Your old computers can make it worth your while to check their recycle value.

Selling your unwanted computer equipment to an online recycler is fast and easy with the service offered by Gazelle. The process is almost completely automated. All you do is look up the make and model of your desktop or laptop computer. They will purchase models from Apple, Dell, HP, Toshiba, Compaq, Sony, IBM, Gateway, Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Averatec, Fujitsu, EMachines, Samsung, Alienware, Everex and others. There are a few questions to answer, such as the condition of your equipment and what features it has. That will take about a minute. Then just click the “calculate” button and the value of your computer for recycling will be displayed. If you like what you see, you can request a free postage paid mailer box. Put your equipment in it, and send it on its way. You’ll get a check in the mail once the condition of your shipment has been verified.

Yes, it’s that easy. You don’t have to find a local drop off point and get there during certain hours. No running any classified ads and dealing with strangers at the door. No taking pictures, writing up a description and holding an online auction. Most of the time those efforts are just more trouble than they are worth. With Gazelle, you can get cash for your used computer with no fuss at all.

Gazelle recycles all sorts of other electronic items. Cell phones are the most popular. You can also get paid for unwanted GPS systems, MP3 players, digital cameras and gaming consoles, just to name a few. You probably have a collection of old electronics going to waste right now. Would you rather have the cash... and the free space? If so, learn more and check the cash value of your unwanted electronics.