Business DSL Alternatives

Business DSL has been popular with small businesses because of its ready availability and low monthly cost. It works just great for some businesses and not so good for others. Some are out of luck completely. The service is just not available to them. Here’s a bit of explanation and some alternative ideas for companies that either can’t get business DSL or don’t like the way it works.

Business DSL is similar to residential DSL. It comes in on ordinary twisted pair telephone wiring. Usually this is just a single pair like a phone line. In fact, it is a phone line. This means that DSL is delivered by your telephone company. They own the copper and are the only ones who can connect to it. Often, though, they will lease out copper pairs to competitive carriers that also offer business DSL service.

One thing that often distinguishes business DSL from residential service is that the home variety is priced at bargain basement prices because it uses the same wires as your landline telephone. Filters are installed so that the low frequency voice signal and the higher frequency digital signal don’t interfere. Business DSL lines are often used only for the digital connection. The telephones have their own separate network.

Some things that business owners don’t like about DSL are the shared rather than dedicated bandwidth, relatively low speeds, outages that don’t get quick repairs and asymmetric bandwidth (for the ADSL variety).

If you’ve been disappointed with what you can get in DSL performance or can’t get DSL at all, consider these alternatives.

For about the same or a little more money, you can get either 3G wireless broadband or Cable broadband. Cable is like DSL on steroids. The much higher bandwidth can make up for shared and asymmetric bandwidth. Like DSL, Cable is distance limited and only available if the cable happens to pass near your business location. Forget DSL or Cable if you happen to be located in the countryside.

Wireless is now an option for businesses in rural and metropolitan areas. WISPs or Wireless Internet Service Providers offer what amounts a giant WiFi hotspot. In order to get a far enough reach, special antennas are needed at each business location. Another flavor of wireless service is fixed microwave wireless. This is business grade service only available mostly in downtown business districts. The provider installs a small antenna on the roof of your building and an Ethernet jack in your office. Bandwidths range from 1 to 45 Mbps for standard service and 50 to 100 Mbps for high speed options. You typically need a line of sight path within 6 miles of the provider’s tower.

There is a type of wireless service that is nationally available and usually doesn’t require outside antennas. This is 3G cellular using the same towers and signals as smartphone cellular. These towers offer strong signals for most businesses, especially if high performance indoor antennas and modems are employed. The 3G service is similar to many DSL service speeds. Now 4G is becoming available, with bandwidth similar to Cable.

One more wireless service that you can get even if there is no cellular service is satellite. All you need is a dish on the roof with a clear view of the southern sky. Prices and bandwidth are competitive with DSL, Cable and 3G. It’s good for many applications, but not VoIP or video conferencing. The latency or time delay is just too long going to and from the satellite.

Consider T1 and Ethernet over Copper if you want high reliability professional wireline connections with low latency. T1 is the classic telecom service. What’s changed is that it is now available nearly everywhere you can get landline phone service and prices are a fraction of what they were a few years ago. Bandwidth is competitive with many DSL services and this is symmetrical dedicated bandwidth. It also comes with a service level agreement that ensures your line will get the highest priority if a rare outage occurs.

Ethernet over Copper (EoC) has emerged recently as a competitor for T1. It is also dedicated rather than shared bandwidth, symmetrical with equal upload and download speeds, and service level agreements. EoC offers higher bandwidths that T1 that often rival the best you can get from Cable. Like T1, prices may be double what you pay for Cable or DSL, but the bandwidth is rock solid and highly reliable.

Are you dissatisfied with your current bandwidth options or simply want to see if you can get a better deal? If so, get complementary competitive business bandwidth options and prices to know the opportunities available for your business location.

Migrating From Business DSL to T1

Many small businesses get their first connection to the Internet through a business DSL service. For casual use, this may be all you ever need. But things get dicey when your business comes to depend on a reliable Internet connection or you add applications such as VoIP telephone, security video, teleconferencing, or VPN access for remote employees. When DSL limitations and downtime start costing you more than you pay for the service, it's time to re-evaluate.

A dedicated T1 Internet connection is the logical upgrade from business DSL. Yes, it does cost more. But the difference is shrinking all the time and when you look at value received and losses avoided, T1 service is clearly superior.

To understand the tradeoff, let's look at how each of the services work. DSL or Digital Subscriber Line is a technology that was developed to allow high speed data to share the same phone line that you use for regular voice calls. It's a consumer oriented service, although there are specific types of DSL sold to small business users. What's meant by consumer-oriented is that DSL is intended for casual usage, where monthly cost is far more important than bandwidth or reliability. Your DSL line and maybe a hundred others are all fed from a device called a DSLAM or Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer. In essence, you are all sharing the bandwidth from a faster or "backbone" connection to the Internet.

This is the Achilles Heel of DSL services, and Cable Internet also. You don't get a set amount of bandwidth. You get a maximum limit, usually described as "up to 385 Kbps" or similar wording. When there are few other users, you get your maximum bandwidth allotment. But when there are many users or some who are downloading large software files or videos, your speed will decrease noticeably.

Standard DSL service is also known as ADSL or Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. The asymmetric part means that upload and download speeds are different. This was set up for Web browsing where you typically send small requests and the browser downloads large files. Other applications, such as VoIP telephone or security camera feeds have much larger upload requirements, which can easily clog DSL lines. Another DSL service known as SDSL or Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line is available for businesses, but it's more expensive than ADSL and the bandwidth is still shared.

DSL availability is also an issue. DSL is not regulated as a telecommunications service. Instead it is considered an information service which allows it to be more loosely regulated and offered as a "best effort" service. That means that phone companies intend to do their best to give you service, but downtime can be expected and you really have no recourse except to move to another service. If your screens go blank or your credit card machines can't authorize purchases and you start losing sales by the minute, it won't take long for that inexpensive DSL service to get really expensive.

Compare all this to what you get with a T1 line. T1 dedicated Internet service offers a symmetrical 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth that's "dedicated" to your business. The bandwidth doesn't change. It's available all the time for both uploads and downloads. That makes it a good choice for bandwidth hungry applications such as enterprise VoIP and video conferencing or security. T1 is a regulated telecommunications service that generally comes with a SLA or Service Level Agreement that specifies service availability and your remedies. As a regulated service, any occasional T1 outages get top priority at the carriers. T1 lines can also be "bonded" together to multiply your bandwidth by 2x, 3x, 4x or more as your needs grow.

T1 service is also almost universally available in the U.S. Not so with DSL. The technology used to share phone lines is only good out to a mile or two from the telephone company office. If you want broadband service out in the boonies, T1 is likely to be your answer.

But what about the costs? T1 used to be both rare and expensive. Now that many competitive carriers have entered the small to medium business market, line prices have plunged dramatically. You might easily pay $100 to $200 for business DSL, only to find that T1 service is available at the same location for less than twice that amount. In other areas, the cost is higher but still justifiable based on performance and availability.

What are the best bandwidth options for your business location? Find out quickly and easily with no obligation when you use our online T1 service GeoQuote(tm) price quoter. Give it a try. You'll likely be pleasantly surprised with the results.