Copper While Waiting For Fiber

For high bandwidth, fiber optic connections are the way to go. You have your choice of bandwidths from around 10 Mbps on up to 10 Gbps and either the SONET traditional telecom protocol or the newer Carrier Ethernet. I say “have your choice” loosely. You can only get that choice once your fiber service is “lit”. That can easily take several months or even longer depending on the amount of construction involved. What do you do in the meantime?



There was a time when all you could do is sit there and cool your jets while you waited for your fiber service to be turned up. A number of carriers are now more sensitive to the plight of businesses that need bandwidth fast and have come up with a two-stage solution. It involves provisioning two services simultaneously. One if the high bandwidth fiber you want long term. The other is a copper-based service designed to tide you over until the fiber is active.

Why copper? Twisted pair copper services are the easiest and quickest to deploy because the copper is already in place. What copper? It the multi-pair telephone cabling that runs from your building to the nearest telco Central Office (CO). Inside that bundle are many individual pairs of small diameter copper wire. Some are used to provide standard analog business telephone service. The rest are spares for future use. These are the one you press into service for digital bandwidth.

The most common copper-based bandwidth service for business is T1. The T1 line offers you point to point dedicated private line connectivity or dedicated Internet access. It is highly reliable and only takes one or two twisted pair to install. T1 is now almost universally available. It is found in metropolitan areas and far out into the countryside. The signal regeneration capability of T1 circuits allow them to deliver service over miles and miles. If you can get business telephone service, chances are that you can also get T1 line services.

The one little fly in the ointment with T1 is the bandwidth. It is a meager, by today’s standards, 1.5 Mbps in both upload and download directions. That’s certainly not going to help much if what you really need is 50 or 100 Mbps over fiber. Fortunately, it is possible to get more than one T1 line at most locations. You can combine the bandwidth of those lines in a process called “bonding.” Bonded T1 lines range from 2 lines delivering 3 Mbps on up to 8 lines delivering 12 Mbps.

Granted, 12 Mbps isn’t the screaming 100 Mbps you might want, but it can easily be a good place to start. Some companies don’t really need even 50 or 100 Mbps at all times. A 12 Mbps circuit can be a lifeline to keep them going until the big pipe is transporting traffic.

Another possibility today is Ethernet over Copper or EoC. This service is a modernized form of copper-based bandwidth that uses the Ethernet protocol rather than a proprietary telecom protocol. EoC transmission can use the same spare copper twisted pairs that would otherwise be used for T1. A big advantage of Ethernet over Copper is that is can transport much high bandwidths over the same 4 or 8 copper pair. The tradeoff is distance. If you are close to the CO, you may be able to get up to 50 Mbps over copper. Farther away, you’ll be limited to 10 or 20 Mbps. Still, if EoC equipment is already installed in your CO, you may be able to get this service in a matter of weeks or less rather than many months for fiber.

If you are starting a new business, moving an office or establishing a new location, you may not be able to function without digital bandwidth service. If you decide to go with the two-step process to get up and running quickly, be sure to choose a solution that lets you cancel your copper service without penalty once the fiber link is up and running.

Some companies choose to keep the copper service active anyway in order to have a backup for their fiber optic service. Since one is fiber and one is copper, they are unlikely to be in the same cable and may not even take the same path. This offers protection against cable cuts and equipment outages that can leave you high and dry until repairs can be make.

Are you in or anticipating a situation where you absolutely need a bandwidth connection and can’t wait months for provisioning? Consider installing copper while waiting for fiber to get the business bandwidth you require.

OC-48 Pricing Reductions Make 2.5 Gbps Affordable

OC-48 bandwidth is a staple among regional Internet service providers and larger corporations. It forms the core or many fiber optic network backbones implemented as SONET rings over hundreds or even thousands of miles. Even with more availability than ever before, many businesses shy away from even considering this high bandwidth service in fear of the budget-busting sticker shock that they reasonably expect. It’s time to reconsider that decision.

OC-48 is one of the SONET (Synchronous Optical NETwork) standard service levels. These bandwidth levels pick up where T-carrier copper services leave off. DS3 or T3 lines provide 45 Mbps of transport. The equivalent OC or Optical Carrier level is OC-1 at 52 Mbps. OC-1 isn’t readily available as an actual line service. In practice the lowest level SONET fiber optic service is OC-3 at 155 Mbps. The next practical step up is OC-12 at 622 Mbps. In some areas you can get OC-24 at 1.25 Gbps, but a more popular level is OC-48 at 2.5 Gbps. Beyond that is OC-192 at 10 Gbps and OC-768 at 40 Gbps.

What makes OC-48 so popular? Many incumbent and competitive carriers constructed their fiber optic networks around OC-48, although some of the largest have moved on to OC-192 and OC-768. OC-48 is widely used for tributaries from OC-192 backbone nodes. Some newer fiber networks are built upon IP cores, completely bypassing legacy SONET technology. Many more are running MPLS or Ethernet over SONET.

One reason for this is that the SONET core is already in place, including all the routing and switching equipment. Another is that SONET is a proven technology that is widely supported and designed for carrier-class services. For instance, most SONET rings are dual rings that offer protection from fiber cuts and equipment failures. In the event of an outage, switching from one ring to another is accomplished in less than 50 mSec.

Once a technology that carriers kept for themselves, OC-48 pricing has dropped so much over the years that it is now a popular connection for many businesses. This includes large hospital and medical center networks, video producers, content delivery networks, broadband Internet service providers, computer aided design firms, businesses with substantial e-commerce activities, popular websites, and heavy users of cloud computing.

Cloud computing is something of a two-edged sword. The advantages include fast scaling of services up and down as your needs change, high reliability, and the ability to empty local data centers to avoid ongoing capital and operating expenses. What might get lost in the initial zeal to outsource to the cloud is how you connect with your new virtual data center located hundreds or thousands of miles away. All of a sudden, WAN connections that were perfectly adequate when most of the IT servers were still on the corporate campus are now sluggish and unresponsive.

If you want to maintain or regain that snappy performance that comes with high speed low latency dedicated private line connections, you’ll need to upgrade your connections between your headquarters and your cloud services providers. OC-48 fiber optic bandwidth may be just the ticket. At two and a half times Gigabit Ethernet bandwidth, you’ll have the capacity you need to avoid network congestion. With a protected service and SLA (service level agreement), you’ll have the reliable service you need for critical business operations. Finally, with recent price reductions from competitive service providers, you can now afford a level of service that previously seemed out of reach.

Have the requirements of your business increased because of business automation, new technologies such as video transport, or a move to the cloud? This is a good time to get a new set of lease prices for both Carrier Ethernet and SONET fiber optic services. High bandwidth circuits, such as OC-48, are now more affordable than ever before.

Why Ethernet is Cheaper

You may already know that T1 and DS3 line service prices have plunged over the last few years. But are you aware that there is an even better bargain available for companies that need bandwidths of 10 Mbps or more? It's a networking technology that you already know. It's Ethernet.

But isn't Ethernet a local area network protocol? Yes, but now it's a wide area network protocol as well. It goes by the names Ethernet WAN, Metro Ethernet, Carrier Ethernet and Ethernet Transport. All of these refer to an Ethernet connection provided by a carrier that plugs into your network router or switch. No special equipment is needed for you to use an Ethernet WAN connection. You just plug into the RJ45 connector and you have signal.

Ethernet in the WAN may seem like the height of convenience and probably worth paying a premium for. But the irony is that Ethernet service is cheaper, not more expensive, than traditional copper or fiber wireline services. How much cheaper? If all you need is a T1 line or T1 PRI for your PBX, then you are likely to get your lowest total cost with those services. But once you need to expand bandwidth for dedicated Internet service or point to point data transfers, Ethernet starts getting competitive. At the T1 line or DS3 service level of 45 Mbps, you might find a Fast Ethernet connection both faster and cheaper. The bandwidth of Fast Ethernet is 100 Mbps but the price might be half or less than a DS3 connection.

The difference is even more dramatic when you move up to Gigabit Ethernet or GigE service. That's 1,000 Mbps, a bandwidth that has been cost prohibitive for all but the largest companies. Up to now, anyway. SONET fiber optic service at the OC-24 level of 1.244 Mbps isn't all that common. Most likely you would need an OC-48 pipe running at 2.488 Gbps to transport your Gigabit bandwidth requirement. Costs can easily be into six figures per month for that level of optical transport. Bring in GigE service and you're 1,000 Mbps may be had for up to an order of magnitude less.

This can't be right, can it? Amazing as it sounds, Ethernet WAN bandwidth really is a huge bargain. The reason for this comes down to competitive carriers. If you need SONET service, at least the last mile fiber connection is likely to be provided by the incumbent local telephone company. Telcos developed the TDM or Time Division Multiplexing technologies that include SONET to bundle hundreds and thousands of telephone calls into compact digital trunk lines. They have a huge legacy investment in building out TDM networks.

But Ethernet is something new. It originated as a data networking rather than a telephony technology. Newer competitive carriers who built their regional and national fiber optic networks for IP data transport are leading the adoption of Ethernet as a metropolitan and long distance carrier service. They are completely separate from the telephone companies and provide all the connections, including the access jack at your business location.

The cost savings are thanks to very aggressive service providers who see Ethernet as the end-to-end digital service of the future and are anxious to build out their networks and acquire new business customers. Carriers such as XO communications, Telnes, Level 3 Communications, MegaPath, Cavalier, Nuvox and Time Warner Telecom are offering excellent rates on the type of bandwidth you need for video, high resolution image transmission, and CAD/CAM data downloads, to name a few Mbps-hungry applications.

So what are the best prices for various tiers of Ethernet service and which carriers serve your business location? You can find out easily with a quick online service query through Shop For Ethernet. In seconds, you'll get a map showing your location and how close you are to the nearest buildings already "lit" for fiber optic Ethernet service.