If your needs are incremental and you’ve slowly used up the margin in your T1 bandwidth, the next logical step is to have a second T1 line bonded with the first. That gives you a WAN connection with 2x the capacity or twice the 1.5 Mbps that T1 service offers. A 2x bonded T1 ups your bandwidth to 3 Mbps. You can continue this process by bonding in additional T1 lines to get 3x, 4x, 5x and so on. Additional bonding is technically possible, but above this level another T-carrier service starts to be more cost effective. That’s T3 or DS3 service.
DS3 stands for Digital Signal 3 or digital signal level 3. It’s a technical designation for the characteristics of a TDM or Time Division Multiplexed digital signal service running at 44.736 Mbps. This is typically called 45 Mbps service. T1 lines have a similar specification called DS1.
How fast is DS3 compared to DS1? DS3 can transport 28 DS1 level signals. That’s the equivalent of bonding 28 T1 lines.
But you are not going to pay the cost of 28 T1 lines to have DS3 service. In fact, your monthly lease price is only a fraction of that. Exactly how much? You’ll need to check DS3 availability and pricing for your business address to find that out.
DS3 pricing is location dependent. The cost is determined by the distance from your business to the nearest carrier POP or Point of Presence. It’s also influenced by how built-out high speed data services are on that route. If there is fiber optic service already installed in your building or one nearby, you’ll have more service options and likely better pricing that if you are in an isolated location.
The termination for DS3 is copper-based. But the service itself can be provided over copper, fiber optic cable, or even wireless. DS3 over copper is often called a T3 line or T3 carrier.
There is another option available in metropolitan areas that gives you DS3 speeds of 45 Mbps at even lower costs. This is Ethernet over Copper or EoC. It’s a fairly new service, but one that is expanding rapidly for business users. Lower bandwidths are also available. Check Ethernet over Copper availability for your business location now.
