Twice the T1 Line Bandwidth

Feeling a bit squeezed for bandwidth? That T1 line that seemed like a cavernous pipe when it was installed is now so loaded with packets that there is no room for new services.

You're not alone. A decade ago even larger companies were happy with T1 bandwidth. Now even small and medium businesses are feeling a bit pinched for throughput. This is the logical result of a move to more online applications and connectivity, along with the productivity improvements they provide. Bandwidth is the new system bottleneck. Not just any bandwidth, mind you. WAN or Wide Area Network bandwidth, the connection that leaves your premises, is the scarce resource.

Consider what is being loaded onto T1 lines lately. There's voice and data convergence. That's a switch from analog phones or traditional PBX to VoIP telephony sharing the data network. Enterprise applications, collaboration, Web based services, company Intranets, branch office integration, outsourcing, remote workers, and regulatory compliance all add loads to the WAN link that weren't there a few years ago.

So what to do? One impulse is to move on up to fiber optic services. There's almost unlimited bandwidth available on fiber wavelengths. It's just a matter of paying for it. Fiber optic bandwidth starts at an order of magnitude price increase over your traditional copper-based T1 line service. It goes up from there in almost order of magnitude steps. Plus there's the installation cost. Unless your building is already lit for fiber, just getting you hooked to the SONET ring may be cost prohibitive.

A more practical solution for most SMBs is bonded copper services. Bonding is a technology that bundles two or more T1 lines so that they act as one. Sure, you can order a bunch of individual T1 lines and try to make them play together yourself. But it's easier and cheaper to order a bonded solution that is already set up the right way.

MegaPath, a leading competitive provider of managed IP communications services, is currently offering ready-to-use Bonded T1 service available in much of the U.S. MegaPath Bonded T1 gives you 3 Mbps of highly reliable symmetrical data service. Symmetrical means you get the same 3 Mbps in both the upload and download directions. Only a single router is required, making connection to the company LAN easy.

If you need more than 3 Mbps, it is possible to bond 3, 4, 5, 6 or even more T1 lines together to create almost fiber optic bandwidths while still using copper pair wiring from the nearest Point of Presence. This can save you a bundle, while providing the throughput your business needs until such time that fiber optic connections are ubiquitous.

A number of competitive carriers are capable of supplying bonded T1 service. Why not check out their pricing for your business location so you can make an informed decision on when to order more bandwidth. You may be surprised to find that an upgrade costs much less than you would expect. Find out now with an instant online service quote from T1 Rex.

Unified Communications Merges Everything

Convergence is a trend in enterprise networks, often focused on migrating telephony to the corporate LAN using VoIP. But the ultimate goal of unified communications involves integrating all electronic communications. That encompasses wired telephony, voice messaging, video conferencing, data networking, network security, VPN and wireless access.

Interestingly, Cisco already has a platform that will do all of this and more for the smaller business. It's the Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series. The basic solution includes telephony support for 8 IP phones, 4 FXS analog phones and 4 FXO analog trunk lines, plus support for SIP trunking. It has integrated voicemail and an auto-attendant, making it a full-featured small office PBX phone system.

So far this sounds like a typical small office IP PBX system. But the 500 series platform goes further. The antenna implies wireless communications. In this case it's an 802.11b/g wireless access point that supports wireless LAN IP phones as well as wireless data devices.

Connection to the WAN or Wide Area Network gives you broadband Internet access with full security via a Cisco IOS Firewall that supports point to point VPNs. Use these Virtual Private Network connections to include home workers or employees operating remotely. You can also easily expand LAN access inside the office by adding a Cisco Catalyst Express 520 Switch with 8 additional ports of 10/100 Mbps PoE (Power over Ethernet). This switch comes configured to work immediately with the 500 series.

With this system, called the Cisco Smart Business Communications System, you have up to 16 computer workstations, IP security cameras, or IP phone sets, a data/voice wireless access point, secure WAN (broadband Internet) access, secure VPN communications to remote locations, an in-house telephone system that connects to the PSTN and supports FAX machines and other analog devices, plus simplified set-up and management built-in. It's a single box that supports the complete small office communications needs.