Get Your BlackBerry 8830 Before President Obama

You may remember the disappointment that President Obama expressed at having to give up his beloved BlackBerry 8830 once he became president. During his first 100 days, he's been using a special government cell phone designed to be ultra-secure. Now there's word that our President may be getting his BlackBerry back soon, albeit with specialized software to ensure secure communications. But you can have the exciting RIM BlackBerry 8830 World Edition right now, sans special government functions. Yours will be a stock model, but it should do everything you want for business or personal use.

The BlackBerry 8830 World Edition solves the dilemma of whether to get the cell phone and carrier you want for use in the U.S. and then buy something else for overseas trips. This device has dual network capability. In the USA, it works on the Sprint CDMA 850 and 1900 MHz network bands. Overseas, it works on the international standard GSM 900 and 1800 MHz bands. That allows it to work in over 150 countries.

Even if you never leave the U.S., you'll find that this BlackBerry has what mobile professionals want in mobile communications. It has that amazing BlackBerry "push" email that is business-secure with up to 10 accounts. You can open and view Microsoft Word, Excel and Power Point files that come attached to emails. BlackBerry Messenger comes preloaded so you also have instant messaging capability.

How about Internet access? The Sprint PCS network is a leader in cellular broadband. This BlackBerry will run on the Sprint EV-DO network with an average of 700 Kbps downloads. Even away from metro areas, it still offers lower speed data service. In GSM mode, overseas, it supports GPRS service at up to 80 Kbps. That should be plenty so support your email and texting needs over there.

The Mobile Web Browser offers full HTML capabilities plus bookmarks. You can use BlackBerry Maps with the Power Vision add-on service plan. There's a built-in true GPS locator and Telenav support if you want to have on-board navigation services.

The BlackBerry 8830 World Edition has a 320 x 240 pixel color main display that adjusts to ambient light to save battery power. Just below the large screen is a full backlit QWERTY keyboard. Bluetooth communications are provided if you want to use a wireless headset.

What are the hottest cell phone deals available right now, including free cell phones? Use the Cell Phone Plan Finder to check out the top phones and associated wireless service plans.

If not quite ready, then be sure to check out all the BlackBerry Models and Wireless Service Plans to get the optimum solution for your particular needs.

Point to Point Lines Connect Dealerships

Car dealerships, real estate companies, medical centers, radio stations and fine restaurants all have something in common. They're often big enough and successful enough to have more than one physical location. What they need is a way to tie two or more locations together as if they are one company. That's what point to point lines and MPLS networks do.

A common scenario is the successful car dealership that has an opportunity to buy out another dealership with similar or competing vehicles. Common ownership has strategic advantages, but consolidation of common functions offers an opportunity for cost savings. Back office operations such as accounting, marketing, IT, and so on are ripe for centralizing and right sizing to a level that can efficiently serve all locations. But this only works if each location can be served as well or better than with an on-site staff.

With so many functions now electronically data driven, there is real opportunity to standardize on computer based systems for everything from sales to accounting to inventory management to maintenance records to Web sites to telecommunications. You can set up similar networks and workstations at each location. But how to you tie everything together?

Chances are that you already use T1 lines for PBX telephone service and/or dedicated Internet access now. There is another type of T1 line, called a point to point T1 line, that is perfect for connecting two locations. As you may have guessed, the point to point T1 line is a direct connection from one location to another. Usually, these locations are in the same town or geographical area. But they don't have to be. You can have one point in New York and another in Los Angeles and it works the same way.

What's important about point to point T1 lines is that they are a dedicated service. In other words, you have exclusive and private use of the connection. It's as if there is a wire stretched between your locations, and in a way there is. Because there is no bandwidth sharing, point to point links are inherently more secure than just connecting two places over the Internet. For really sensitive data, such as your customer or business records, you can choose to encrypt the data during its transit from point to point.

Point to point T1 lines can be used for more than just data exchange. Radio stations use these as program lines between their studio and transmitter. They can also be used to transfer programs and commercials between stations with common ownership.

Can point to point lines be used to connect more than one location? Sure. You can connect a P2P (Point to Point) T1 line from every location to every other location. As you get more locations, this can get rather expensive. You are probably better served to organize your WAN (Wide Area Network) in a hub and spoke arrangement with headquarters acting as the hub to provide connectivity to all the branch offices or other locations.

For mesh connectivity to many locations, another popular service is MPLS or Multi Protocol Label Switching. This is a private shared network that guarantees bandwidth and connectivity. You typically use a T1 line at each location to provide access to the network. The MPLS provider then sets up paths that define which locations can talk to which other locations. There are other users on the network also, but you will not be impacted by them the way you can be on the Internet.

Is Point to Point T1 or MPLS service right for your operation? The best way to find out is to compare service options and prices and then select the connection scheme that gives you the right connectivity, bandwidth, privacy and cost.

VoIP Replacement Services

Are you dissatisfied with your current VoIP service provider? Are you getting poor customer service, or even no service if they have gone out of business? Then use this handy VoIP Service Finder to compare offers and find a new provider. There are also some other alternatives you should consider if you are running a business.

VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol zoomed onto the scene and has made quite a splash for residential, small business and enterprise users. What's propelled the growth of VoIP has been the opportunity for cost savings on telephone services.

At the residential level, competitive phone service providers figured out how to use the Internet so they wouldn't have to lease regular lines from the local phone companies. They give you an adaptor so you can connect your phone to your broadband router or modem and then offer attractive bundle pricing for local and long distance service. This type of service is also attractive for very small businesses with only a single phone, including home office businesses. VoIP providers typically include many features, such as Caller ID, that traditional phone companies offer as options with extra charges.

Enterprise VoIP is a bit more sophisticated. There's big capital and expense savings to be had by using phones that connect to the company LAN rather than a separate telephone network. There's also an opportunity to tie computer screens and telephones together in computer-telephone integration to increase productivity in customer service and call center operations.

A big factor in VoIP call voice quality is the quality of the network connection. A good, solid high bandwidth Internet service with low latency and jitter and few lost packets can provide high call quality. A flaky Internet connection is going to sound bad no matter who the service provider is.

Enterprises rarely use the Internet as their telephone network. Instead, they terminate calls to the outside world through traditional digital telephone trunks or contract with a SIP Trunking provider that offers a private network connection.

A VoIP option called Integrated T1 service offers the benefits of lower cost telephone service for businesses using 6 to 12 phone lines and broadband Internet. A special access device connects to the service provider over a private dynamic T1 line. That line carries both telephone calls and Internet service. The quality of the phone calls is protected by the equipment, which assigns priority to any phone conversations and uses the remaining bandwidth for broadband Internet. The dynamic aspect is that any bandwidth not needed for telephone service is automatically reassigned to boost Internet speed.

Yes, There IS Rural Broadband For Businesses

One of the most anticipated provisions in the economic stimulus plan has been funding to build-out rural broadband solutions. But did you know that you can already get the bandwidth you likely need for your rural business location?

Rural areas have long been ignored by most broadband Internet service providers. It's not that a rural office, factory, warehouse or farm is any less important than businesses in the city. It's that the cost of running new coaxial cables or fiber optic bundles can't be amortized over very many users. When providers run the numbers, they wince and then set aside the whole idea of expanding their service footprints. That's why you don't see Cable TV or DSL services promoted out in the countryside. But that doesn't mean there isn't broadband service.

Does your business qualify? Do you have telephone service? It's really that simple. Thanks to 100 and some years of standardized phone lines and a mandate for universal telephone service, most every business location you can imagine can get dial tone over ordinary copper pair wiring. Those same copper pair can be pressed into service to carry digitized T1 line service instead of analog phone service. It's takes two pair per T1 line, but you get either 24 digital phone lines or 1.5 Mbps of Internet access.

In fact, most businesses have "binders" with many pair of copper wires brought in so that they can have multiple phone lines. Every two pair can support a T1 line. Those don't have to be completely separate lines, either. They can be combined or "bonded" to create high bandwidth services. A 2x T1 bonded service gives you 3 Mbps, 4x is good for 6 Mbps and so on, up to a practical limit of 10 or 12 Mbps. Honestly, do you really need more bandwidth than that? If so, you'll probably have to wait for fiber optic service to come your way.

Another way to drop-in broadband Internet to even the most remote of locations is to use two-way satellite broadband. Speeds are similar to T1 and bonded T1 lines, although there is a limit on how much bandwidth you can use in any given period of time. That's due to capacity limitations of the satellites. However, if satellite broadband works for you it can be less expensive than wireline solutions in rural areas.

Wireless line of sight broadband service have also been popping up in rural areas, mostly to serve new subdivisions where there are enough houses and businesses to justify the cost of erecting a tower and feeding it with, you guessed it, bonded T1 line service. There's no national network of these there way there is with wireline and satellite, so it really depends on exactly where you are located as to what service is available.

Do you have a rural or remote business location? Do you have a need for broadband Internet service? Then find out which rural broadband solutions are already available for you.

Speedier Network For The iPhone

The Apple iPhone is something of a mixed blessing for AT&T. On the one hand, they have the exclusive cellular voice and data network for the one phone that's still a hot item in this decidedly cool economy. On the other hand, the sheer power of the iPhone's Internet applications is creating a nearly insatiable demand for more bandwidth. It's a challenge that AT&T is rising to meet.

Cellular towers communicate in two ways. One is through a set of channels assigned to handle telephone calls. The other is through a separate set of channels that provide wireless Internet access. It wasn't that many years ago that data was an afterthought for cell phones. Texting was the primary application, with email rising in popularity. Dial-up speeds were plenty good enough to handle slow text based services. But then cell phones started including cameras. With cameras came the demand to be able to send those pictures to other phones and post them on Internet sites. Web browsers started to be included. Today, the best ones are full HTML capable and work the way you'd expect on a desktop or notebook computer. The final straw is video. People aren't satisfied waiting for short low definition video clips to download. Now they want high quality streaming video and even live TV.

As you can imagine, these faster applications have increased the demands on cellular service the same way they did for home and business access. Dial-up is totally inadequate. Entry level broadband is noticeably poky. What everyone wants is the same speeds they get at home and at work. That's typically in the 3 to 10 Mbps range for what's considered "fast" service today.

The first Apple iPhone operated on what is called the EDGE network. That's an acronym for Enhanced Data Rate for GSM Evolution. It refers to a protocol used by GSM carriers, a popular International standard. AT&T is a GSM carrier. AT&T advertises EDGE download speeds as being in the range of 75 to 135 Kbps on the average. Peak speeds are higher, but it depends on how close to the tower you are and how many other users are sharing the service. Enhanced means enhanced over the previous dial-up speeds offered on the network.

The second version of the iPhone runs on the AT&T 3G Network which uses a different protocol called HSPA or High Speed Packet Access. Download speeds are improved to 700 Kbps to 1.7 Mbps, with fast upload speeds of 500 Kbps to 1.2 Mbps. Peak speeds can hit 3.6 Mbps. That's a lot faster, and more typical of what you need to run today's demanding applications even in a mobile environment.

But there's no way that AT&T can afford to rest at this plateau of performance. In fact, they're reportedly doubling their HSPA technology with software upgrades to achieve a peak bandwidth of 7.2 Mbps. That probably equates to 1 to 2.4 Mbps on average for typical use. There is also another upgrade possible to double that to a peak capacity of 14.4 Mbps.

The days of 3G are numbered, however. The hot new technologies are LTE (Long Term Evolution) and WiMAX which promise bandwidths of 10 Mbps or more. Sprint and Clearwire are building out WiMAX. Verizon and AT&T are going with LTE. This technology will have the designation of "4G" to imply another generation of wireless technology. Until the economy picks up, though, don't expect a rapid deployment of 4G this year or even next. After that, 4G could become the new 3G and everybody will wondering when they're going to get something really fast... like 5G.

Telephone and Internet for Chain Stores

Small businesses are highly cost sensitive. They can't afford to lose customers to credit card transactions that won't go through or telephone calls that get garbled and dropped. If your business is a franchise or simply has multiple locations, you also have a need to tie your operations together efficiently. What can do all this and still protect your budget? It's Integrated T1.

The integration designation of Integrated T1 service refers to a merging of voice and data, that's telephone and Internet, on a single T1 line. This is done for efficiency and cost minimization, while maintaining telecom quality.

T1 telephone service has long been the gold standard for "trunk lines" that bring in many telephone lines to a business location. T1 is a digital line service that replaces single analog phone lines. The line is segmented into 24 separate channels. Each is the equivalent of a single analog phone line. With a special configuration called T1 PRI, one channel is dedicated to signaling and data, including Caller ID.

T1 DIA or Dedicated Internet Access is the equivalent gold standard for business Internet service. Here the line is configured as a single broadband "pipe" rather than dividing it into channels. The capacity of a T1 line is 1.5 Mbps in both the upload and download directions. That's plenty of bandwidth for nearly all small businesses who need access to the Internet, data exchange with the main office, access to remotely located servers, and POS connections for inventory management and credit card authorizations.

A medium size business may very well order a T1 PRI telephone line with 23 local and/or long distance lines plus a T1 DIA line for Internet service. As the business grows, additional T1 lines can be connected to increase capacity as needed. But what if 23 phone lines are way more than you need? You want the SLA (Service Level Agreement) that guarantees performance of your voice and data lines. But is there any way to cut the cost since you don't really need all that capacity?

That's what Integrated T1 line service gives you. You can designate up to 12 channels for telephone service. Many smaller businesses, including real estate offices and retail stores, need only 6 to 12 anyway. The rest of the bandwidth is assigned to dedicated Internet access. That gives you a minimum of 750 Kbps to 1 Mbps of dependable broadband.

A popular variation of Integrated T1 service is called Dynamic T1. With this service any bandwidth not being used to serve telephone calls in progress is assigned to Internet bandwidth. This make more efficient use of your line so you can get the best voice quality for phone calls and the most bandwidth for Internet access.

If your small business location depends on both reliable high quality telephone service and solid reliable access to the Internet or VPN (Virtual Private Network) connections to your other business locations, the service you'll want to price and consider is Integrated T1.

Going Green Office Tips

Happy Earth Day!

While we celebrate the environment today, any day is a good day to reduce waste and improve energy efficiency. It's not just the right thing to do, it's good for business. Let's start by finding some simple changes to make. We'll check the results and move on from there.

My own small office was almost insufferably hot during the summer and quite toasty even in Northern Illinois winters. Checking around, I could feel that a couple of computers, monitor, TV set, printers and overhead & desk lights were pumping out the BTUs like little space heaters.

The first change was to replace the 4 incandescent mini-flood lights overhead with equivalent CFLs or Compact Fluorescent Lights. These have come a long way in a few years. They only cost a few dollars now, are available in a wide variety of styles at the big box hardware stores, come in light temperatures that mimic incandescent, use dramatically less power, and are barely warm to the touch. The 4 dimmable Neptun R20 reflector bulbs I'm currently using consume 16 watts each versus 50 watts each for incandescent. That's 64 watts total versus 200 at full brightness. It's also 24 watts in heat versus 160 watts lost as heat per specs on the package. That change alone makes a huge difference in the heat you feel beating down on your head from above.

The two desk lamps are OTT-LITE fluorescents with full spectrum bulbs that make reading documents and working on the computer easy. As with the overhead reflectors, you can barely feel any heat when you put your hand near the bulb. You can feel incandescents, and worse yet halogens, from feet away.

Another change I made was to replace my tube TV with a similar size flat screen model. I could feel heat pouring out of the bookcase that held the old TV. Not any more.

My new color laser printer, a Brother HL-4070CDW, has an Energy Star sticker. That means it complies with energy standards for that type of equipment. Mostly, it sits quietly and uses little energy on standby. I intend to buy Energy Star rated equipment from now on. More and more manufacturers are complying, so it's getting easier to find. Computers and monitors are big users of power. I switched from a 17" tube monitor that was a noticeable heat generator to a 19" ViewSonic flat screen that is barely warm to the touch.

Want to know the best way to cut back on both heat and electricity? Turn things off when you aren't using them. That even means switching off the lights when you leave the room. It may seem trivial, but over the course of a month or year you can save many kilowatt hours by getting into this simple habit. Also set your monitor to go dark after 10 or 20 minutes and let your PC put itself to sleep if you don't use it for 15 to 30 minutes. It will wake up quickly enough when you need it again. If you find this too annoying to your work flow, just set the times longer. It will still make a difference when you go out for lunch or are in meetings for hours on end.

A handy tool that shows you instant results is the P3 International P4400 Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor. They're available at hardware stores and online for about $25. You plug in the device you want to measure and plug the meter into the wall socket. It shows you the number of watts being consumed. If you let it run for a day, you'll get the number of KWH used per day. At 10 cents or more per KWH, the total cost of running electronic equipment is significant. Even the phantom power consumed by equipment on standby adds up when everything on the circuit is considered. Consider using a surge protected power strip with a mechanical switch to completely turn off equipment that is only infrequently used.

Can you really see the difference? You bet you can. We replaced almost every incandescent light in the house with a similarly lumen rated CFL. The change paid for itself in a matter of a few months. I was shocked by how much of a difference it made.

On the waste side, I've switched to Office Depot 100% recycled EnviroCopy paper. This product has also come a long way. It's just as bright and solid as the non-recycled paper and doesn't cost that much more by the carton. But the best way to solve the trash problem is just don't use so much. I've pretty much canceled my paper trade magazines in favor of online electronic delivery. It not only saves the wasteful cycle of printing, mailing and hauling to the street for recycling, but it's actually easier to scan for the stories you are interested in.

Another tool that is gaining favor for both cost reduction and "greener" business practice is the online meeting, versus travel for in-person get togethers. You can still do that occasionally for relationship building. For day to day needs a tool such as GoToMeeting can save a small fortune when collaborating on projects.

I know that these measures just scratch the surface, but its easy to start by taking simple steps immediately. You'll be surprised by how much of a difference you'll actually notice.

Get 300 Free Minutes With a Net10 Phone

You may have heard of Net10 as the company that charges you a flat rate of 10 cents per minute for cellular service. That's it. No contracts, no delving into your credit record, no humiliating turn-downs because you don't "qualify". You buy an inexpensive Net10 cell phone. You charge it up with minutes. You reload minutes as you go. Pretty simple, right? Now it's an even sweeter deal as Net10 will give you 300 free minutes and 60 days service when you buy any Net10 phone.

Did I mention the free shipping? That's included too.

Net10 isn't for everyone. If you need an iPhone or BlackBerry connectivity, you won't find it here. Net10 serves people who want good basic cell phone service and they want it cheap with no strings. That's where the idea of 10 cents per minute arose. In essence, it's pay as you go. When you don't want it anymore, just stop adding minutes and your service will expire. Nobody is coming for you to try to squeeze out a cancellation fee. There's none of that with Net10.

Perhaps you're not so sure about those prepaid phones that make you go to the store and buy refill cards all the time. You have that option with Net10. But there are also lots of other ways to keep your phone charged with airtime. You can simply order more right from your phone when you are running low. Or make a phone call. Or use the Net10 Web site.

Or, better yet, sign up for one of the automatic payment programs. The most basic one charges your credit card $15 every month. For that you get 150 minutes good for local or long distance calling. There are no roaming fees with Net10. Each month, you'll pay another $15 and get another 150 minutes plus 30 days of continued service. Gee. That sounds something like a regular cellular program. Yes, except that you never signed a contract so you aren't stuck in it for 2 years. Did you also notice that the price is $15 a month? Name a conventional cell phone company that offers a contract for $15 a month.

Who needs a program with only 150 minutes a month? Probably most people. If you think I'm kidding, then keep a log of your calls for the next month. Add up the minutes you actually use the phone. Many, many of us carry cell phones for peace of mind in case an emergency occurs and the occasional need to call home or make an appointment. For a mere $15 a month you've got yourself a really nice emergency phone. In fact, this might be a good choice for the kids. Voice calls are 10 cents a minute. Text messages are 5 cents each.

By the way, you do know that your minutes roll over as long as you keep your service active? They do. But if you happen to be a big talker and go through all your minutes every month, you have two choices. Buy extra minutes at the same 10 cents per minute (no gouging for overages) or go with a larger plan. Say, 250 minutes for $25 a month. Or get 400 Minutes for $40 a month, about the same price as you pay for contracted cell phone plans. There's also a new Unlimited Plan that's available in many areas. Call or text all you want for $79.98 a month.

So there it is. Now you can see why Net10 service is so popular at just 10 cents a minute. But it's likely to get even more popular with the special 300 minutes and 60 days of service FREE when you buy a Net10 phone. Don't wait too long to take advantage of this offer. It could expire at any time.

NobelCom Offers Cheap Prepaid Phone Cards

Why use prepaid phone cards? To save money, of course. Not just a little bit of money, mind you. These are for saving a LOT of money, especially on international phone calls.

Let's say you need to make a personal or business call to China. How much is that going to cost, do you suppose? You may be flinching at the thought of paying a dollar or more per minute or even, say, 25 cents a minute. Well, how would you like to be paying 1.1 cent per minute?

What? That can't be right, can it? Just over a penny a minute to call China? Yes, that's the current best price using the Hello China prepaid phone card from NobelCom. This isn't some ripoff deal, like some of the cards you may have gotten stuck with in convenience stores. The Hello China card is highly rated and does not charge a connection fee. Watch out for that on other cards!

Now there are some things you should know to maximize the number of minutes you'll get from this and other prepaid calling cards. You pay $20 for this card and get 1,816 calling minutes. You'll want to call one of NobelCom's local numbers to get that rate. A surcharge of 1 cent per minute is charged if you need to call their toll free number to connect. That's still just over 2 cents per minute. Also, you'll get the most minutes with this card if you make one really long call or a number of shorter calls right after you get the card. There's a 99 cent maintenance fee per week. Choose a card that has no maintenance fee if you expect to be calling many times over the course of a year.

Do you have to call from the United States? For this particular card, yes. But you can pick other cards that let you call from just about any country to any other country at low rates. The best U.K. to China card rate happens to be 2.7 cents per minute at this time.

Some other popular destinations from the U.S. include Afghanistan for 10.9 cents per minute or to Iraq for 4.4 cents per minute. You can call Mexico as low as 1.8 cents per minute or Germany for 1.3 cents per minute. These are the rates available as of this writing.

Well, you get the idea. The calling rate with NobelCom International Calling Cards is typically a small fraction of what you'll pay with your regular long distance service. Plus, you can use these cards for travel. Can't do that with the office or home long distance service.

Have some place in mind that you'd like to call and pay less than you have been? Then get all the details and the latest rates on Phone Cards and International Calling Cards from NobelCom.

Who Wants A Computer In Their Car?

Now that Ford is offering an onboard computer for its work trucks and vans, could the time be right for the debut of an in-dash computer option in passenger cars? If so, would you want one? I'll bet you will.

Ford's intent right now is to offer a substitute for laptop computers that contractors take to the job site. Computers are useful in the construction trades as replacements for paper forms and planning documents. Ford's offering will include an optional printer to spit out invoices as needed.

Pretty cool technology for trades people, but what about those of us not employed in construction? Seems like an in-dash computer should be pretty useful for sales people, consultants, and anyone else who does business on the road. You'd be able to get messages and documents from the home office, enter orders and print out receipts in your car. FAX messages would come right out of the dash.

OK. Your handy laptop or notebook computer will do that now. So let's take a wider view. For general users, the dashboard PC has some other intriguing possibilities. Let's face it, the onboard navigation system is really a limited use computer itself. By moving that function into an broadband connected general purpose PC, you could do some interesting mash ups.

To me the most valuable would be superimposing weather radar on top of the map display. With GPS feedback, the system could keep the radar display centered on your location and looking outward. You'd be able to see what's coming and find shelter or take alternate routes to avoid the nasty stuff.

While we're at it, the in-dash computer might as well take the place of the radio. This might be the kiss of death to satellite radio if the broadband signal plus some buffering were solid enough to prevent signal cutouts as you drive. How about Pandora on the go? Come to think of it, the vanilla offerings served up by over the air broadcast stations are also at risk when you can design your own station with an almost infinite variety of programming. At that point, local content would again regain its unique value.

With an Wireless Internet connected PC and printer, the landmark and service features of GPS databases could expand to include full website access for the restaurants, retail businesses, service facilities, and popular tourist destinations. Order your tickets and have them printed out as you arrive at your destination.

Of course, we don't want to encourage a generation of drivers with their eyes on the PC and a keyboard in their lap. But there's no reason why the passenger seat couldn't have full access en route. The same goes for remote screens and even game controls or keyboards for the back seat passengers. Perhaps the kids can keep up with their homework when they're not downloading new video content. Make every trip a scavenger hunt with travel games that require you spot certain things and enter a description into the system. A powerful enough computer should have no trouble multi-tasking several screens and input devices.

Include hands-free cell phone service and perhaps two-way video conferencing and you have a complete communications system on the road. What else do you suppose can be included once you have the power of a general purpose PC with a broadband Internet connection right in the dashboard of your car?

T-1 Digital Telephone Lines

If your business has multiple telephone lines, you may already be familiar with T-1 digital telephone lines. If not, you may be missing an opportunity to save money on every monthly phone bill. Even if you have T1 service installed now, you may not be aware of all the currently available options and the cost savings that could be yours.

Digital telephony traces its roots back to the 1950's, when the telephone companies were looking for ways to efficiently transport dozens, even hundreds or thousands of phone calls. Basic analog phone lines carry only one conversation per pair of copper wires. An analog multiplexing scheme, called carrier telephony, treated the phone lines like radio bands to transport multiple calls per pair of wires between phone company offices. Multiplexed analog trunks cut down of the number of wires needed, but suffered from noise and crosstalk problems that lowered long distance call quality.

The T-carrier system, which offered T1 and T3 digital trunk lines, has been the solution of choice for both telephone companies and larger businesses for decades. T1 lines are divided into 24 time multiplexed channels, each carrying one digitized telephone conversation. Only two pair of common telephone wire are needed for T1 telephone line. One pair is for transmit and one for receive. T1 lines start making economic sense when you have 10 or 12 outgoing phone lines. That threshold is shrinking as T1 line prices are steadily reduced, while analog phone line prices remain relatively constant.

An improved T-1 digital telephone line is called ISDN PRI, short for Integrated Services Digital Network Primary Rate Interface. It's called PRI or T1 PRI for short. PRI uses a channelized T1 line but reserves 1 of the 24 channels for signaling and digital information. The other 23 channels are available to support telephone calls. This technology has the advantage that all of the bits in each channel are used for digitized voice signals. The signaling channel serves the other 23 and makes calls connect and disconnect faster. It also provides Caller ID information, which standard T1 phone lines cannot support. T1 PRI is now the standard for business PBX systems and call centers, where multiple phone lines are in simultaneous use.

But what if you only need 4 to 6 outgoing phone lines? There is another solution called Integrated T1 service that combines telephone and Internet service on a single T1 line. You get up to 12 channels for telephone service. The rest are used to bring in broadband Internet access. A version called a dynamic T1 line automatically reassigns unused telephone channels for Internet bandwidth until they are needed. This way you can get up to 1.5 Mbps broadband speeds for upload and download but be sure that phone service is always given priority as needed. The cost of Integrated T1 service is attractive because most companies need both telephone and Internet service.

An even newer T1 line service is called SIP Trunking. SIP is the signaling protocol used by VoIP telephone systems. A SIP Trunking provider offers both VoIP telephone service and Internet access over a single T1 line. If you need more capacity on this or any of the other T1 services, you can add additional T1 lines as needed.

Are you interested in exploring the cost savings opportunities offered by T-1 digital telephone lines, or looking to see if you can save money on your current digital services, then use our Shop For T1 GeoQuote (tm) search tool to get instant online quotes so you can compare prices.

Profit From The Bandwidth Price Wars

There's a war underway, but it's not any of the ones you hear about on TV. This is a price war and it's all about commercial bandwidth. Far from getting hurt in the battle between carriers, you can be the one who profits from their skirmishing.

What's causing all this upset in what was once a staid and uncompromising telecommunications industry? Competition, that's what!

The competitive landscape shifted with the breakup of the Bell System in 1984, which allowed other companies to provide telephone service. Competitive long distance service, starting with companies like Sprint & MCI and more recently Opex, PNG, Pioneer, IBNtel, Covista and Total Call International let both businesses and consumers save money on their long distance calls while retaining their local phone service.

Two changes in technology have accelerated the advantages of competitive service providers. First is the introduction of VoIP that uses packet switched digital transmission over the Internet or private IP network instead of analog copper pair connections. The other is private regional and national fiber optic networks that can connect businesses without having to lease last mile connections from the incumbent local telephone companies.

These developments have resulted in a lot more competitors entering the lucrative telephone and Internet service marketplace. They also provide bandwidth in the form of T1 lines, SONET fiber optic services, MPLS networks, SIP trunking and Metro Ethernet. T1 and SONET offerings directly compete with similar telco offerings. SIP trunking, MPLS networks and Metro Ethernet are new on the scene and look to replace the older technologies completely.

All of these competitors, dozens in fact, have given businesses a mind boggling array of service options. They've also fueled the bandwidth war that has cut prices on many once prohibitively expensive telecom services down to levels that small, medium and larger companies can readily afford. It's not uncommon to find that the price of a T1 line or DS3 bandwidth has dropped by half or more since that service was first leased only a few years ago. Other options, such as Ethernet over Copper, can offer higher bandwidths, such as 3, 5, 10 or 45 Mbps at rates per Mbps that are mere fractions of what they would be with traditional line pricing.

This wealth of opportunity has resulted in one major dilemma, however. How can you be sure that you are getting the best rates when you are only familiar with a few of the possible suppliers? The answer to that is a telecom brokerage service that lets you enter a query online at any time and even get instant online quotes for T1 and similar line services. Consultants are available to handle queries for higher bandwidth services and special needs such as connecting multiple locations. All of this comes at no charge to the inquirer.

This rapidly expanding competitive landscape means that you can probably save on all of your voice and data communications needs. There's only one way to find out. Check the latest competitive telecom service prices and see.

Do You Have The Instinct For Covert Ops?

Do you have what it takes to be secret agent? Do you know Jack? Jack Bauer, that is. You watch his moves on the Fox series "24". Don't you fantasize about being right in the action with that crew? Well, fantasies are good. What you need is access and a special phone, of course. That phone: The Samsung Instinct.

The Instinct phone from Samsung in special agent black (what else?) is one of a new generation of cell phones that give you more features than ever before. It starts with an extra large high resolution touchscreen color display. You'll have confidence that you are making the right selections because this screen provides tactile or haptic feedback in the form of a slight vibration when you press the screen or use the stylus.

A screen with the ability to display over 262,000 colors needs an equally powerful digital camera, don't you agree? The 2.0 Megapixel camera that is built into the Instinct has a resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels. That's good enough to print as well as send to your friends. With multimedia messaging you can take and receive both picture and video messages. Your videos are captured in QVGA resolution at 15 frames per second using the MPEG4 format. How long can you record? That's limited only by the amount of available memory. The expandable memory slot lets you load microSD cards to make sure you have enough.

The Instinct is also an Internet connected device. It operates on the Sprint EV-DO Rev A network, the really fast one, with downloads up to 3.1 Mbps. That's better than many DSL and Cable broadband services. What do you need this level of speed for? To watch Sprint TV, for one thing. You can also browse the Internet with full HTML support and the tactile user interface experience. Your QWERTY keyboard appears on-screen with virtual touch keys.

Any agent worth his or her salt needs voice communication, Internet access to download building plans and other documents, and navigation to avoid getting lost. The Samsung Instinct has built-in GPS to take advantage of Sprint Navigation Services, so you'll always know where you are in the action.

Now that you know about the Instinct, you've got to have one for yourself. Right? Well don't pay retail when with a little research you can get an excellent discount. Here's a clue: Learn more about the Samsung Instinct with Sprint PCS service and order yours online at this site at a price we won't share with any bad guys. Note: Evil doers, go buy your phone in a store.

Fans of the show "24" have a special Operation Instinct site available from Fox to download screen savers and get weekly sneak peeks beamed to your Sprint phone. There's also a training maneuvers game and a sweepstakes where you can win prizes related to the show.

Not into the whole special agent thing or just want to shop around for the best deals on cell phones? No problem. You'll find the Instinct and many others available at special discounts, some even free, at Cell Phone Plan Finder.

Online Photo Storage Offers Protection

Digital photography has reduced the incremental cost of taking photos to near zero. But the value of the photos themselves remains, as ever, what they mean to the photographer. That can range anywhere from trivial to priceless. Why take a chance that you'll lose an image you can't replace when protection is so very cheap?

The usual way we protect our electronic images is by copying them from camera to computer hard drive. Then by making a backup copy on CD ROM or DVD ROM. You might even make an extra copy on a USB solid state drive for both protection and portability. These methods ensure that you don't accidentally erase your photos. But they're inadequate to protect from other disasters. A fire or tornado strikes with little warning and can destroy computers, backup disks, solid state drives and other local storage facilities in one fell swoop.

For an extra layer of protection, consider online picture storage. This is just what it sounds like. You upload your photos to a remote site where a redundant copy is kept. When you want one or more files back, you download it.

Sure, you can accomplish pretty much the same thing by making multiple CD ROMs of your photos and sending one copy to a relative, sending it to a far away plant site, or putting it in a safe deposit box. But, in practice, how rigorous are any of us in keeping up with this. Chances are that you'll have at least some recent pictures that reside only on your PC hard drive and nowhere else. They've already been deleted from the camera to make room for more photos.

In addition to having a remote site to back things up to, it's also valuable to have software that takes care of the back-up process automatically. That way forgetfulness is removed from the equation. Your files are safely squirreled away without you having to think about it.

Another nice feature is encryption. That's not always so important for snapshots, but what works for pictures also works for personal data files of all sorts. By encrypting the files during upload and download and then encrypting them on the remote disc, you've got protection against hackers and other snoops.

All of these features are available from Mozy Online Backup. The personal entry level product offers free backup software and 2 GB of remote storage gratis. You don't even need a credit card to take advantage of this service. If you decide you want more than 2 GB, you can get unlimited personal online storage for pictures, music and data files for $4.95 a month.

For business users there's an upgrade called MozyPro. This service is available with licenses for anywhere from a few to as many seats as you need. There's also a MozyPro for Mac computers as well as PCs, and both Windows and Mac servers.

Regardless of whether you're an occasional amateur or dedicated professional photographer, consider the low cost protection option of online picture storage with Mozy backup services.

Is That A Game Or A Netbook?

The line between computers and electronic games has been fuzzy for years. That's basically because a modern gaming console really is a powerful computer, with the games implemented as applications software. So it should come as no surprise that Nintendo's new handheld game system has netbook-like features that include WiFi connectivity with security, a Web browser, and expandable memory.

Make no mistake about it, the Nintendo DSi is targeted toward gamers. It has a console you can hold in your hand, it's battery powered, and it runs Nintendo DS game cartridges. Actually, the DSi is the next evolutionary step for the Nintendo DS series. It's been an extremely popular product line for Nintendo. I've got the DS lite version myself. But what does this iteration offer that would justify an upgrade and how does this device intrude on the nascent netbook market?

In a way, the Nintendo DSi looks like it should be a small notebook computer. It's flat black case flips open to reveal...

Well, not a keyboard. Instead you'll find two screens. One is on the lid where you'd expect it. The other is on the case where you'd normally find a QWERTY keyboard. Instead of letter and number keys, there's a joystick control and some other push-buttons. The screens are slightly larger, 3.25 inches, than their DS lite predecessor. The lower screen is a touchscreen to make up for the limited number of buttons available.

The Opera Web browser and games make use of both screens, giving you about twice the visual real estate of a touchscreen cell phone. That's the other gadget that the DSi could be looking to partially emulate.

There are 2 cameras included in the DSi, which are new to the Nintendo DS family. One camera is on the case and faces outward. The other is on the inside and faces toward you. They're being promoted for taking taking goofy pictures and playing around with them using some comical photo editing features. But I'm thinking two-way video conferencing someday. Well, why not? There's a microphone onboard and WiFi transceiver. It's just a matter of someone coming up with the right app.

Music is also onboard this version of the DS. There's an AAC format music player and stereo speakers. You can even record short sound clips using the onboard mic and play around with them using the audio software. Oddly, this device doesn't support MP3, which is more of the industry standard. But it is a music player, and you have the SD memory card slot available to make sure you have enough storage for your music and photos.

Clearly, the Nintendo DSi is a toy and not a piece of business gear. The resolution of the screens and cameras is low by today's high definition standards. There's no Microsoft Office software package and certainly no disk drive. But think about it. Where netbooks are leading us is to a world in the clouds where the true processing power and massive storage will reside. The access device, be it a smartphone, netbook, or perhaps even a gaming console, is a thin client that only needs the hardware and firmware required to input and output to the cloud over the Internet.

So, what do you suppose some clever developers could do to hot-rod the functionality of the DSi? Could they build it out for VoIP telephony over WiFi using Skype? Play videos or live TV? Two-way video conferencing? Email and instant messaging? Multimedia messaging? Blogging? Tweeting? Running business applications from specially designed Web sites?

Perhaps this is a bit fanciful, but you can see how portable game consoles, cell phones and netbook computers are on a collision course. What gets used for what remains to be seen. For the mean time, if you are interested in a sweet portable gaming console with some multimedia and Internet capabilities, take a closer look at the new Nintendo DSi.

XO Communications Ups the Ante on Ethernet

One of the leading competitive service providers offering telecom services in the higher bandwidths for businesses and organizations is upping the ante on Metro Ethernet availability, with a wide range of new service options. XO Communications is leveraging its nationwide fiber optic network, extensive collection of POPs (points of presence) and advanced Ethernet over Copper technology to make Ethernet even more appealing for WAN (Wide Area Network) bandwidth.

What's the big deal about Ethernet? It's the logical extension of the network technology of choice for nearly all businesses, large and small. That means that Metro Ethernet is pretty much a plug-and-play solution for connecting locations near and far. All your sites can act like they are on the same network - because they are.

Beyond the ease of understanding and interconnection, Ethernet offers tremendous cost advantages over traditional telco solutions originally designed to transport telephone calls. By keeping all your networks on the same technology, you gain an efficiency improvement over the "slicing and dicing" required to load packets into TDM network channels and recover them. Some Ethernet speeds can be transported over copper pair rather than fiber optic cables, avoiding a massive capital investment in areas where not all buildings are lit for fiber.

XO is now offering a range of transport speeds that include 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 200, 300, 400, and 500 Mbps over fiber. You can also get 3, 5, 15 or 20 Mbps over last mile copper where EoC or Ethernet over Copper is available. That's typically within a few miles of the nearest carrier POP or point of presence. The 3 and 5 Mbps service levels are newly available for Dedicated Internet Access (DIA), reflecting the need that many businesses have for higher speed broadband service.

XO Communication has an extensive set of network access solutions that include Ethernet over fiber optic cable, Ethernet over Copper and fixed broadband wireless. Ethernet can be delivered by wireless in speeds from 10 Mbps to 80 Mbps in 36 major metropolitan areas within line of sight to an XO wireless transmitter.

If you are considering upgrading your bandwidth or simply want to see if there is a lower cost solution for your current bandwidth needs from XO or other competitive carriers, then learn what Ethernet services are available for your business location.

Get Paid To Celebrate National Cell Phone Recycling Week

Did you know that we're right in the middle of National Cell Phone Recycling Week? Did you further know that there's a way you can get paid to join the celebration? You didn't? Well, then there's no time to waste. Pay close attention.

National Cell Phone Recycling Week is an initiative of the Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA, to raise awareness that cell phones are chock full of valuable materials that can be recycled and toxic substances that need to be kept out of the environment.

As a public service, the wireless carriers and a number of retailers are collecting your old decrepit cell phones so that they can be properly dismantled, separated by type of material, and recycled to make new cell phones and other things. Now if you have one or more of those old critters hiding in the bottom of a desk drawer or in a junk box in the garage, you know the right thing to do is your civic duty by dropping off that phone at a collection point. For very little effort on your part, you'll be preventing generations of environmental damage that occur when electronic products decompose in the environment.

What you probably don't know, but might suspect, is that many cell phones and other devices, such as GPS systems, digital cameras, MP3 players, satellite radios, laptop computers, camcorders and gaming consoles are still very much functional. Seems a shame to send them to the crusher just because you've traded up for a newer model. You'll really think that's inappropriate once you find out that you can get paid to send in your old electronics.

This is the little secret on how to get paid to celebrate the environment this month and every month. You don't have to worry about running ads or auctions or any of that. You simply look up what your cell phone or other electronic device is worth, request a free postage paid shipping box, and spend next to no time packing it up and sending it in. That's it. You'll get your check shortly thereafter.

Actually, selling your unwanted electronics for reuse is even more green than recycling the materials. By passing this device on to those who can still use it, you are avoiding the need to spend energy manufacturing yet another product to replace one that is being disposed. When that device is finally used up and no longer functional, then it's time to grind it up to make new ones.

I should mention that another good deed you can do is to donate your working product or the proceeds you get from your sale to a charitable organization. In these economic times, there's an almost overwhelming need for social support services of all kinds. You may find an organization nearby that you want to help. Otherwise, you can choose to take the cash or donate it to charity when you sell your cell phone or electronic device of value.

Vanity, Thy Number is Toll Free

Is there a place for vanity in business? You bet there is. Any technology that gives you an edge over your competition is worth considering, including a vanity toll free number.

So, what's the difference between a vanity number and any other toll free number? The answer lies in the relationship between letters and numbers on the standard telephone keypad. It's been long standardized that the 1 button does not have any letters printed on it. But 2 has a, b, and c. The number 3 button has d, e, and f. And so on up through 9.

One benefit of associating letters with numbers is that you can now dial phone numbers by spelling out words. For instance, someone selling boats might want the number 1-877-48-BOATS which is the same as 1-877-482-6287. A bridal shop might find that customers could more easily remember 1-866-59-BRIDE than 1-866-592-7433. That's especially true if they saw the number on a billboard or heard it on the radio or TV and didn't have a way to write down the number at the time.

1-877-48-BOATS, 1-866-59-BRIDE, and others such as 1-877-51-BOOKS, 1-866-96-CONDO, 1-866-531-DEBT, 1-866-760-FOOD, 1-877-967-TECH, 1-877-80-TOOTH, 1-866-50-YOUTH and 1-866-546-YOGA are all examples of vanity toll free numbers. They are also all available as of this writing for the small sum of $15 to reserve any of them for your exclusive use.

Really? It costs only $15 to get a memorable toll free number for business, organizational, or personal use? It does if you order from the right place.

A leader in toll free services, including toll free numbers is Kall8. What makes them a leader, perhaps THE leader in this field, is that you get an impressive array of features, a huge collection of numbers already set up and ready to order, and dirt cheap pricing. For vanity numbers, the pricing is $15 to order the number, $15 a month to maintain exclusive use of that number, and 6.9 cents per minute for calls that come in on that vanity number.

Can you think of any other business service that can help you get and keep customers at such a small cost? If not, don't wait a second longer. Pick your toll free vanity number from a list of dozens and dozens currently available and order quickly and easily online. All it takes is a credit card a few minutes and you'll be ready to go.

Better hurry. Now that I've mentioned these particular numbers, other readers might decide to grab them for their own businesses. You likely won't be too disappointed, however. There are so many good numbers available that you're likely to find at least one that exactly fits your needs. You should also know that while most vanity numbers are priced at $15 each, there are some that are so valuable, so easy to remember and so in demand that they command higher prices, say $20, $25 or $30 each. Even so, that's pretty cheap for something that can help you increase business just by being easier to remember than your competition's numerical phone number.

If you want to get started with toll free numbers even cheaper, there are many that are not claimed to be vanity numbers available for $2 each and $2 per month plus the cost of calls. Now, a clever person could go through the available numbers substituting letters for numbers and see what can be spelled out. You never know. You could wind up with the cheapest vanity toll free numbe of all.

Google's Plan To Chew Up Microsoft

A recent story in the Wall Street Journal offers a clue as to where Google is headed next. It's coming for you, Microsoft.

Actually, Google's ultimate ambition might be far more expansive that even an unseating of Microsoft as undisputed owner of the PC operating system space. The secret dream may be a complete domination of all devices with embedded computers. That's pretty much everything there is electronic, isn't it?

The news that suggests Google is moving beyond controlling the information search environment and looking to run the whole machine is that PC makers, including Hewlett-Packard, are testing Google's Android operating system for use in netbook products. Up until now, Android has been seen as an operating system for mobile phones. Something that runs a cellphone can't possibly pose a threat to the massive and entrenched PC operating systems, can it?

Perhaps it can. If it does, it will happen in a similar way to how Microsoft unseated the computing giants IBM, DEC, Data General, Control Data and others to become the big name in business computing, and wiped the slate clean of all competitors, save Apple, in personal computing. What Bill Gates did that was both prescient and game altering was to become the PC operating system provider to IBM at a time when PCs didn't seem much of a threat to the status quo. Only in hindsight can we say, "they should have seen it coming."

The key is in the timing. Microsoft established itself at the inflection point where personal computers were poised to take over the corporate desktop from dumb terminals and become an affordable data processing solution for small and home businesses. Now that the standards of business and personal computing primarily revolve around Microsoft Windows, there's a massive barrier to entry for anyone who seeks to offer an alternative.

We are nearing such an inflection point again. You see the "clouds" gathering - literally. Computing is poised to move off the desktop and onto the Internet, with software as a service rather than a product. There's really no reason you need to do processing or storage locally. It's a matter of becoming convinced that the reliability, security, performance and price make the cloud computer a better alternative to the personal computer.

The netbook, more than the smartphone, represents a move to this new business model. Although, the day may not be far off when the line between computer and phone is so blurred you really can't tell the difference. For some early adopters, the Apple iPhone is well down that path. Netbooks seek to give you a cheap, lightweight, and small mobile computer without losing the power of the computer. They do that by moving functionality online so that they can shed things like CD drives, power sucking high performance processors, and massive hard drives.

The client-server model stopped the move to decentralized computing in major corporations years ago. Cloud services pretty much extend that model beyond the corporate walls by using the Internet as a LAN replacement. As business WAN bandwidth becomes cheaper, there's really no reason why netbooks, and perhaps the desktop equivalent of thin clients, can't become the new standard. Of course that can't happen overnight... or can it?

Ghost Routers In The Sky

Look! Up in the Air! It's a bird. It's a plane. It's Wi-Fi.

The age of the flying hotspot is upon us. After some tentative starts, it now looks like the entire air fleet is embracing wireless Internet service for its customers. American Airlines recently announced it is joining the fray by installing WiFi access on more than 300 planes. Delta, Northwest and Virgin already have similar services in the works.

You knew it had to be this way eventually. We're an addictive nation. We may be shunning old vices like tobacco, trans fats, gas guzzling SUVs and even plastic bags. But electronic fixes are the new high. No teenager would be caught cell-less. No adult is going to be forced to take more than short trips without logging on to the Internet. The hotel industry caught on to this insatiable demand a decade ago. Restaurants caught on this decade.

Now it's time for the airlines. We may not need in-flight meals or drinks or movies or pillows. We don't care if we're crammed in like lobsters headed to that final sauna. You can make us sit in those cramped little seats for three hours before we take off. But there better be Internet service, or else.

The airlines are no fools. They're not going to be giving away WiFi access, after all. Have that $10 bill ready for the short hops. More for longer flights. American is going to offer a lower cost service for smartphones and PDAs, so the text addicted can keep on tweetin'. But don't get the idea you can flap your yap on a cell phone. You can only let your fingers do the talking. Quiet clicking will be acceptable to your fellow travelers, unlike some buffoon talking much too loudly and sharing way too much personal information.

There are two competing systems for in-flight Internet service. One uses cellular towers along the flight path. The other uses satellites. Aircell's Gogo system is cellular based, but you don't pick up the signal directly from the cell towers. Instead, the airplane receives the transmissions and feeds an onboard WiFi hotspot supporting 802.11 a/b/g wireless communications. That makes it compatible with everything but non-WiFi enabled cell phones.

Boeing's Connexion pioneered the use of satellite to plane links to provide service over water where there are long stretches of the briny deep with no land and no cellular towers. Service was discontinued in 2006 due to lack of sufficient demand.

A mere three years later, the demand has materialized. Perhaps it's due to our ever more connected world where both our business and personal lives require near-constant connection with the Internet. Perhaps air travel has finally become miserable enough that only our only escape is down the online rabbit hole into an alternate reality. But so many airlines are busily testing and deploying wireless routers on their planes that it looks like WiFi in the air is here to stay.

The big question is how long airlines will be able to collect those access fees for the same broadband service that hotels and restaurants are giving away free. We'll know the answer when people start picking their flights based on who is going to give them free WiFi.

Cheaper Optical Carrier Services

With business transactions becoming more and more electronic, there is a crying need for higher levels of WAN or Wide Area Network bandwidth. What usually stifles company ambitions is not that they can't make good use of faster digital network services. It's that they can't afford them. Or so they think.

Actually, there's been a dramatic reduction in the cost per Mbps of carrier services since many business leaders last got quotes and were so shocked and horrified by the results that they shelved the entire idea. It started with the bursting the famous "tech bubble" of the 1990's. Yes, back then bandwidth was jaw-dropping expensive and not all that widely available. But the collapse of technology sector growth resulted in an almost immediate bandwidth glut and prices did what you'd expect. They fell to a level that matched demand. So dire was the situation that for years conduits chock full of new fiber strands went unlit and unused.

That glut was gradually sopped up by an expanding economy, but costs have not returned to their earlier high levels as you might think would happen with a shrinking supply and increasing demand. The reason is that supply is not shrinking. It is expanding. It is expanding due to new companies entering the field and building out their own networks to the latest standards.

That's important because regional and nationwide fiber optic networks are incredibly expensive to deploy. All that fiber has to go in the ground, on overhead poles, or through unused pipelines. Plus the equipment that regenerates the signals as they get weak traveling hundreds and thousands of miles through the glass fibers, and multiplexes and demultiplexes the various services at each POP or Point of Presence, represents a huge capital investment. Once a carrier has installed a particular type of system, they want to pay it off and generate profits for as long as possible. They're not all that anxious to toss everything out in a "fork lift upgrade" and bring in all new technology.

This gives newer players an advantage because they don't have all that legacy equipment to amortize. They start fresh with the latest and most efficient systems. As as example, many competitive carriers have installed IP based optical networks while the telcos are still running TDM based networks designed for digitized telephone calls rather than packet traffic. With enough slicing and dicing, you can get any network to transport any protocol. But it's more efficient and less costly to match your network to the type of traffic you expect to handle now and in the future.

The result of an increasingly competitive marketplace for optical carrier services encouraged by a rapid growth in business demand for bandwidth to improve speed and efficiency is making for an attractive situation if you are the one buying the bandwidth. A further improvement in the process is the emergence of telecom brokers with sophisticated online comparison tools to gather rate information from many carriers and present them in an ordered list from cheapest to most expensive for the same service.

The best of these is the industry leader, Telarus, Inc., with its patented groundbreaking search tool called GeoQuote(tm) that you can access yourself through Gigapackets.com. This tool accesses the databases of a couple of dozen competitive carriers to generate accurate service quotes for lower speed services such as T1 lines in a matter of seconds.

Higher level services, such as SONET OC3, OC12, OC48 and OC192 fiber optic services or IP services, such as Carrier Ethernet to 10 GigE levels, and MPLS networks require some engineering input and may take a few hours. Telarus consultants usually have a good idea of typical costs for these services so you can get a budgetary figure quickly. Be sitting down when you ask. You may be shocked by the amount of bandwidth you can afford these days.

Economic Woes Drive Rural Telegraphy Initiative

The ongoing deterioration in economic activity has caused a complete rethinking about how to bring digital communications to rural areas. It's no secret that Internet access and even cell phone service is hard to come by out in the boonies. That's what the rural broadband initiative in the economic stimulus plan was designed to correct. But in a cruel twist of fate, it's been discovered that the monies intended for trenching fiber optic cable down country lanes has instead been appropriated by city hedge fund managers.

As one of the fund managers, Robb M. Blihnd, explained: "The need for hedges to separate adjoining properties in densely packed urban and suburban landscapes is critical to public safety. People are getting testy and going after their neighbors over little things like barking dogs, smoke from barbecue cookouts and children straying into adjacent properties. We need the money for planting hedges to clearly identify property boundaries and provide a natural barrier against intrusions. The demand for hedge fund financing is clearly more critical in metro areas than out in the country where the population is more dispersed. That and our executive bonuses, of course."

The dearth of funding has sparked renewed interest in an alternative technology well suited to rural communications. With minimal construction costs and low bandwidth requirements, telegraphy may the answer to doing "something" for the long ignored rural constituency without Congress having to come up with additional funding. Samuel F. B. Morse's telegraph was America's first telecommunication technology and designed to work in the frontier environment of the 19th century. Sometimes referred to as the "The Victorian Internet", there are eerie parallels to today's messaging technology. Users known as "telegraphers" networked across the country to exchange messages at will. Simple battery power energized both transmission and reception, much the way cell phones use batteries today.

Jon Dehre is owner of the first TSP or Telegraph Service Provider to apply for federal funding under the massively scaled down Rural Telegraphy Initiative. According to Jon: "Wiring for a telegraph system is easy out in the country. Most farms have barbed wire fencing that works great as a conductor to carry the signal for miles. Of course, you have to watch out for those electrified fences. We zapped a few operators before we learned to test for high voltage by throwing a wet tarp on the wires. We go through tarps pretty fast, but there seems to be plenty of tarp financing available."

The resuscitated telegraph technology should have a special appeal to younger users who are addicted to texting. Only a single finger is needed to tap out the dots and dashes of the Morse Code using a standard telegraph key. Power users can upgrade to a semi-automatic keyer, also known as a "bug." These require the use of two fingers, but leave one hand completely free to act as an unpowered "green" printer for writing down incoming messages.

Telegraphy solutions may also be appropriate for some businesses with little technology need and even lower expectations. For those that require a true broadband solution, it should be noted that T1 lines are available at reasonable rates through Sheep For T1, a website designed to support businesses located beyond metropolitan areas. In addition, satellite broadband is available for residential users in nearly all USA locations. No fooling.