What’s special about 20x20 EoC is that it offers an extraordinary level of bandwidth using only commonly available twisted pair copper cable. You get a symmetrical 20 Mbps upload and 20 Mbps download speed. This is a professional-grade WAN networking service that is highly reliable. Your bandwidth is dedicated to your applications and is not shared with other customers. It’s also full duplex, so you can upload and download at the same time using the full bandwidth available.T1, the basic and most popular of the T-carrier services, offers just 1.5 Mbps delivered using 2 copper pair. You can upgrade that by adding more T1 lines with a binding process that combines their bandwidth. This works well up to about 10 or 12 Mbps. Then it becomes too expensive compared to other solutions.
The next logical upgrade is T3 or DS3, which are pretty much the same service these days. The bandwidth is an impressive 45 Mbps, but you won’t get that over twisted pair telco cable. You’ll almost certainly need to have a fiber optic connection. In some situations you may be able to get fixed location wireless at that bandwidth as long as you have a short line of site path between you and your provider.
What 20x20 Mbps Ethernet over Copper does is fill the gap between slower speed bonded T1 lines and higher speed fiber options. A bandwidth level of 20 Mbps is fast enough for many medium size companies to use for dedicated Internet access, file backup and restore, medical image transfer, computer aided design and manufacturing, video transport and similar demanding applications.
The way 20x20 Mbps EoC works is that it divides the bandwidth among multiple twisted pair wires in a binder group. The modulation scheme is chosen to minimize interference between the signal wires or even cancel out interference on the lines. One of the technical reasons that EoC is highly reliable is that no one pair carries the entire signal. If a wire breaks or the circuit connected to it fails, other pairs can continue to provide service, albeit at a reduced bandwidth level until repairs are made.
It sounds like 20x20 Mbps Ethernet over Copper is an almost ideal service, doesn’t it? It gets better. Mbps for Mbps, Carrier Ethernet services tend to be less expensive than their legacy telecom competitors, including T1 and DS3. The one caveat is that EoC isn’t universally available as of yet. It’s primarily a Metro Ethernet service found in cities and suburban areas, with very little rural service. There are distance limitations to the technology. You need to be within a few miles of a carrier POP (Point of Presence) to get Ethernet over Copper services.
What about higher bandwidths? EoC is most popular in the range of 2 Mbps up to 20 Mbps. Very near provider offices, speeds up to 45 Mbps might be available. Above that, you are going to need fiber run into your building. This is not necessarily a budget breaker. Some competitive providers anxious to acquire fiber optic business will subsidize or even fully cover the cost of a fiber optic buildout if you order significant bandwidth.
Are you in need of higher bandwidth but unsure about availability and costs? Find out quickly and easily if you can get 20x20 Mbps Ethernet over Copper or other high bandwidth services at very affordable prices.
