It's that location, location, location thing again. Your business broadband options depend highly on what's been built-out. Tech savvy developers know that digital communications infrastructure is just as important to business users as electrical power, natural gas, water and sewer connections. In a way, high speed communications is a utility. It's the new electricity.
Unfortunately, many business and industrial parks pre-date the rise of the Internet. While they might not be offering steam for your industrial line shafts or water power for your gristmill, they won't be flaunting their GigE or OC48 network connections either. Being situated on the outskirts of town doesn't mean you're out of luck, though. Highly reliable digital telephone, point to point data links and dedicated Internet connections are available anywhere you'd care to put up an office building, factory or distribution center.
The service you need is the ubiquitous T1 line. T1's were developed by the telephone companies and designed to go wherever phone lines go. In fact, the physical layer specified for T1 service is twisted pair copper. The same copper wires universally used for analog phone service. With signal regeneration, even locations in rural areas can be connected from telco offices dozens of miles away.
You should know that T1's are available in different configurations. A T1 dedicated Internet connection is what it sounds like. It's an always-on full time port to the Internet that runs at a fixed bandwidth of 1.5 Mbps for both upload and download. You connect via a T1 router that has the necessary Channel Service Unit and Data Service Unit circuitry (CSU / DSU) to interface with a T1 line. A router meeting this specification can be provided by most carriers offering dedicated T1 service, often at no cost on a two or three year contract.
Another form of T1 line is the T1 voice or T1 telephone circuit. It comes in two flavors, channelized T1 and T1 PRI. The difference is that that PRI protocol creates a dedicated channel for signaling and Caller ID information. As you probably guessed, a T1 telephone line connects to your PBX telephone system. It gives you anywhere from half a dozen to two dozen telephone lines on a single digital trunk for less cost that maintaining all those separate analog phone lines.
Many businesses have a need to interconnect two or more locations. You can do this with point to point T1 data lines, connections to a private data network or an Internet virtual private network. In these cases, a T1 line provides your access network to other locations.
Need more bandwidth than a single T1 line can provide? Get 3, 4.5, 6, 7.5, 9 or more Mbps by bonding multiple T1 lines together. This gives you the throughput you need for higher bandwidth applications without the often prohibitive construction costs to bring fiber to your business.
Is your business small enough that you could get by with less bandwidth for a lower price? One option is to order a fractional T1 line. Another is to share a single T1 with other businesses in the park. If needs grow, you can always bond-in additional lines to increase bandwidth.
What's available for your business park location? Check to see if your building or a nearby building is lit for fiber optic Ethernet service.
No fiber? No problem. Our expert consultants will find you the best deals on T1 and bonded T1 line service for your voice and data needs.
