California and Nevada Get 200 Mbps Bandwidth over Copper

It’s no secret that business bandwidth demands have been skyrocketing in the last decade or so. Companies that used to be successfully connected with T1 lines (1.5 to 12 Mbps) or DS3 (45 Mbps) are now finding that line speeds over 100 Mbps are needed to support HD video, big data and cloud computing.

Companies in California and Nevada now find it much easier to get up to 200 Mbps over multiple copper pair. Notice that I said copper, not fiber. It’s no trick to get bandwidths this high or higher over SONET or Ethernet over Fiber. The big stumbling block is getting the fiber installed.

The beauty of fiber optics is that the bandwidth is nearly unlimited. Once the fiber is in place you can swap out terminal equipment at each end to increase single wavelength fiber speed or install wavelength division multiplexing equipment to multiply the bandwidth capacity of each fiber strand. Now, if there was only a way to get fiber installed without breaking the bank.

You may not have to. Modulation technology developments have given a new lease on life to the same twisted copper pairs that carry your analog business phones or T1 data lines. Standard Ethernet over Copper (EoC) technology uses up to 8 twisted pair to deliver roughly 3 to 45 Mbps. In special cases that has been increased to 100 Mbps. There is no need to install new copper pair to the building, so construction costs are minimized and you don’t have to worry about fiber runs being available in the area.

Technology continues to advance rapidly. Now TelePacific is doubling the current offer of 100 Mbps Ethernet over Copper to 200 Mbps. They call the upgrade EEoC for Enhanced Ethernet over Copper. It’s already available in 247 of their LSOs (Local Service Offices) in California and Nevada. That number is increasing to 284 LSOs this year. That makes EEoC service available to a potential quarter million SMB (Small to Medium size Businesses).

Compare EEoC to services like OC-3 at 155 Mbps or Fast Ethernet over Fiber at 100 Mbps. The speed is higher and you don’t need fiber. For many if not most SMBs a bandwidth of 200 Mbps will meet their needs far into the future. By the time 200 Mbps is no longer adequate, technology will likely increase this speed again or fiber will be pulled into your building by TelePacific or another competitive service provider.

What if you don’t happen to be located in California or Nevada? Are you out of luck for any reasonable amount of bandwidth for your business?

Far from it. There are multiple options available just about anywhere to increase your line speed. The ubiquitous T1 line has been available to business users for decades and is still selling briskly. The only thing that’s changed over the years is the price. Competition from multiple providers and other services has dropped T1 prices significantly. Plus, lines can now to bonded to increase bandwidth from 1.5 Mbps on up to 10 or 12 Mbps. That’s plenty for many smaller companies.

Need more speed? Ethernet over Copper is available nationwide from multiple providers. It’s very easy to get EoC in speeds that range from 3 to 30 or even 50 Mbps in most business areas. Companies that are in smaller towers or out in the countryside are the exception. They’ve always been able to get T1, but now a variation on EoC called EoDS1 gives you Ethernet over Copper using beyond city limits. Fiber optic carriers are also aggressively building out their networks and wiring up multi-tenant buildings as fast as it makes sense. You may not have been able to get fiber last year, but this year could be a different story.

Are you looking for a bandwidth upgrade for your business? Would you be delighted to find out that you can get the same bandwidth you have now or even more for no additional cost? It’s time to check out your options. Get a complete list of options and prices, plus free consulting services to help you choose the best approach. You might be surprised by what’s available today.

10 Mbps Is The New T1

T1 service has long been the gold standard for business connectivity. They’re deployed as point to point private lines, dedicated Internet access, and PBX telephone trunks. T1’s are readily available, reasonably priced and highly reliable. Their one limitation was once their prime selling point. It’s the fixed bandwidth of 1.5 Mbps.

Now it’s true that 1.5 Mbps still meets the needs of many small retailers and companies that aren’t technology driven, although even that is starting to change fast. Everyone from insurance professionals, physicians, video producers and engineers is now highly connected. Some of those connections are private lines or virtual private lines. Others are dedicated access to the Internet. What they have in common is a need for far more than yesterday’s bandwidth of 1.5 Mbps.

What’s more appropriate for today’s needs? It’s looking like 10 Mbps is becoming the new gold standard. Why is that? First, let’s look at what’s happened to bandwidth requirements. Nearly everyone connected to the Internet now has broadband rather than dial-up access. The wireless industry is under tremendous pressure to move from 3G speeds of around 1 Mbps, not that much different from T1, to 4G speeds of 3, 6, 10 and higher Mbps downloads and at least 1 Mbps upload.

Broadband speeds are under the gun because they are now the limiting factor to the success of computing. The PCs themselves, including Macs, have gone to multi-gigabyte memories, terabyte storage and multi-core processors. They’ve got the horsepower to create whatever user experience is required. Even tablets are now multi-core and connected to WiFi, 3G or 4G broadband. The WAN is the limiting factor in getting information into and out of the computing platform.

This wasn’t the big deal a few years ago because most all computing was done locally. You either had a software package on your PC or accessed a corporate server over a Local Area Network. Web pages were small, static and mostly text and low resolution graphics. Email is an undemanding text-based service. Ecommerce solutions may have sophisticated processing on the back-end, but don’t necessarily need to transmit that much data back and forth during a transaction.

What’s happened now is that graphics are going high resolution to match higher resolution screens and the natural output of higher resolution still cameras and HD video cameras. Video content is a greater portion of the traffic on any WAN connection. Even more importantly, everything is moving off to the cloud. The cloud is your data center, somewhere, out there, and everything flows to and from the cloud over your WAN connection. This might be a private line or an Internet access service. Either way, it better be a fairly large pipe or you will be feeling constrained in everything you try to do on your computer.

TelePacific is one carrier that is embracing the demand for higher business bandwidth levels and deploying what they call EoX or Ethernet over Anything. That’s Ethernet over copper, TDM, fixed wireless or fiber optic cabling. Why Ethernet? It has the cost advantage over traditional telecom services, an easy interface to corporate LANs, and rapid bandwidth scalability. Most popular is EoC or Ethernet over Copper. What EoC offers is provisioning over the same type of twisted pair copper telco wiring that transports T1 lines, but with higher bandwidths and lower prices per Mbps than T1.

For instance, to get 10 Mbps over T1 lines you need to bond 7 T1 lines together at a cost of 7 times the price of a single T1 line. For half that cost or less, you can get 10 x 10 Mbps Ethernet over Copper. If need be, you can easily ramp that up to 15, 20 or 25 Mbps or more when the need arises. As a reference point, the price you were paying for a single T1 line a few years ago will get you 10 Mbps EoC service today.

Are you feeling constrained by your WAN bandwidth, especially that aging T1 line? If so, it’s time for an upgrade that is likely less expensive than you think. You can probably afford 10 Mbps or more right now. Find out by getting prices and availability for Ethernet bandwidth services suitable for your business location.



Note: Ethernet patch cords photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

IP WAN over MPLS Advantages

When we think of IP wide area networks, the first thing that comes to mind is the Internet. While the Internet does have almost universal connectivity and modest cost to access, there are some serious issues when it comes to business applications. Bandwidth, latency, jitter and packet loss have no guarantees and few expectations. Security is a joke. But aren’t other methods to interconnect business locations costly and hard to manage?

It is possible to set up a private IP network that lets you use your familiar IP addressing schemes and avoid encryption, firewalls, tunnels, and additional hardware. You’ll gain a performance advantage compared to using VPN techniques over the Internet and save yourself the administrative headaches of trying to manage a WAN with inherently indeterminate characteristics. Who offers something like this? It’s TelePacific, one of the nation’s largest competitive carriers.

TelePacific’s 1Net is an IP VPN running on a private MPLS network, not the Internet. Since MPLS or Multi-Protocol Label Switching can transport almost any protocol, it can be set up to mimic the Internet while keeping your data private. Only the locations that you set up can exchange traffic. No one outside of your user group can capture or view your data. You’ll have any to any connectivity within the group with security sufficient to address HIPPA or similar government regulations.

In fact, TelePacific set up just such a private IP Network for a medical imaging organization with 6 locations. They use it to transport patients’ private medical records among their location. Referring physicians can access patient imaging results within hours at their own computers. The system is also used for claims processing, patient scheduling and registration. Interestingly, this system also allows dedicated Internet access through a single firewall at corporate headquarters.

The TelePacific 1Net IP VPN has both cost and performance advantages over other secure networking solutions, including private line, ATM and Frame Relay. You can specify up to six different Classes of Service (CoS) to support sensitive real-time services such as VoIP telephone and teleconferencing. On Net, latency for all CoS is specified at 50 msec. That rises to just 100 msec for extended reach locations off the TelePacific network but still within the US. Network availability is 99.999% (5 nines) both on and off network locations.

The Classes of Service are CoS 1 for VoIP real time traffic, CoS2 for video conferencing and real time data traffic, CoS3 for high priority, delay sensitive business data like Ecommerce and Citrix, CoS4 for medium priority delay-sensisitive business data such as CRM and WebEx, CoS5 for general less delay sensitive business data like ERP, and CoS6 for best effort traffic with no prioritization. That’s typically Email and FTP.

Are you cringing at the cost and effort involved in linking your business locations by private lines or frustrated by the highly variable performance and difficulty in securing the Internet? Perhaps the best solution for your business needs is a private IP VPN based on MPLS networking. Check prices and features to compare with your other choices.



Note: MPLS network diagram courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Ethernet over Fixed Wireless Broadband

Many companies have discovered the cost and performance benefits of Metro Ethernet services over copper and fiber optic cable. But did you know that there was a third option? It’s Ethernet over Fixed Wireless and it can get you the bandwidth you need both quickly and affordably.

Ethernet over Fixed Wireless (EoFW) differs from the portable or mobile wireless services we are most familiar with. While most WiFi, WiMAX or LTE services offer broadband Internet access within a given service footprint, they are intended for general use. There is generally no encryption and no directionality. You use a smartphone or laptop computer, sometimes with a USB adaptor, to get connected to the network. The bandwidth is limited and shared. You’re never quite sure how fast the connection is going to run.

Fixed wireless is a completely different service. The only thing it has in common with 3G and 4G cellular broadband is that it doesn’t use wires. It doesn’t use their microwave channels nor their towers. This is a private service sold to businesses, not consumers.

What does Ethernet over Fixed Wireless have to offer? You’ll get speeds similar to wireline services, secure data transmission, fast installation and a service level agreement. In other words, a dedicated wireline connection without the wireline.

TelePacific is now a major player in this relatively new field, after acquiring the assets of Covad Wireless. They offer two levels of service, one to compete with T1 lines and Ethernet over Copper, plus a higher speed service that competes with DS3 bandwidth.

Wireless Super-T T1-class Business Internet provides scalable bandwidth from 1 Mbps to 6 Mbps. That’s what you’d get from bonding up to 4 T1 lines or an EoC service. But what if you are outside the limited EoC footprint for your area and you don’t want to wait for T1 service to be installed? TelePacific can install service and have it working within days of an order. You’re talking weeks for a T1 line and who knows how long if you want to bring in fiber.

Speaking of fiber, are you in need of higher bandwidth but beyond the capability of bonded T1 or EoC and blanching at the cost of fiber construction? TelePacific can have you up and running in typically 30 to 45 days using their professionally engineered and installed licensed microwave equipment. Bandwidth levels of 10, 15, 20, 30 or 45 Mbps are available in California and Nevada. Higher bandwidths from 50 to 100 Mbps are available in California. No need for expensive DS3 cards and routers. You connection is a Fast Ethernet interface.

Even if you already have high capacity lines to support your business, are you sure that you’re ready if disaster strikes. What if those cables get cut? How long will you be out of business before they get spliced back together? This is where TelePacific’s HiCap wireless service can save the day. The path to your ISP is wireless and they offer a network-diverse route to the internet.

A specialized service you may find valuable is TelePacific Wireless Event Service. They can provide you with standard service from 2 to 6 Mbps or higher bandwidth from 10 to 40 Mbps to support your trade show, sporting event, company or customer event, film festival, concert on on-location film shoot. They even provided Internet access on the beach for a surfing competition. It’s all engineered and handled by TelePacific. You just show up, plug in and access the Internet.

Does this whet your appetite for the benefits of getting your business bandwidth without the usual wired connections? If so, get pricing and availability for Fixed Wireless Broadband Service to support your business needs.

TelePacific’s SmartVoice Trunking Offers Telephone Smarts

TelePacific Communications has a clever and sophisticated solution for small and medium size businesses that need telephone and Internet service. It’s a SIP trunking solution that offers both voice and data on a single telecom line. What distinguishes their SmartVoice service is that it can accommodate different kinds of business telephone systems and offers a lot more traffic capacity than Integrated T1 lines.

SIP trunking is an IP-based transmission line designed to support enterprise VoIP telephone systems. SIP is Session Initiation Protocol, the signaling technology used by many IP phone systems. Since IP networks transport voice and data packets equally well, many SIP trunking providers offer a combination of telephone and Internet service on the trunk line.

TelePacific’s SmartVoice Trunking also offers a combination of telephone and Internet service. The system is set up so that any bandwidth not being used for telephone calls is dynamically allocated to Internet bandwidth. If another phone call takes place, that call gets a priority on the bandwidth it needs to ensure voice quality.

Now here’s something different. An Integrated T1 line will do this, but only up to its capacity of 1.5 Mbps. That’s typically no more than a dozen simultaneous phone calls with 750 Kbps of broadband Internet. SmartVoice Trunking bonds multiple T1 lines together to create a single SIP trunk line. Up to 4 T1 lines can be bonded to create a path bandwidth of 6 Mbps.

The significance of all this bandwidth is that larger businesses or telephone-intensive operations, such as customer contact centers, can have up to 48 simultaneous phone conversations through their IP PBX and SIP Network connection. Perhaps you don’t need that many phones, but do need the bandwidth for broadband Internet access to support many users. The Dedicated Internet Access on the SmartVoice trunk gives you the bandwidth you need without the necessity of paying for completely separate telephone and Internet lines.

SmartVoice also supports a wide variety of business telephone systems. The latest IP PBX phone systems are supported, of course, but so are standard PRI and CAS trunks for traditional digital PBX systems. You can even connect analog handsets or your key telephone system with capacity for anywhere from 4 to 24 outside lines.

What sort of advanced features does SmartVoice support? Caller ID is standard. You can also get up to 100 DID or Direct Inward Dial numbers so that each employee has their own phone number and there is no need to go through a receptionist. A feature set just added is hunt groups. With hunting, if one person doesn’t answer the call it will go on to the next person in line on a linear or circular pattern. Circular hunting allocates incoming sales calls to the sales staff on a round-robin basis so that every sales person gets a fair share of the prospects. There are other patterns you can set also.

Does this sound like the kind of telecommunications service that would benefit your company? If so, talk to an expert consultant and get a quick quote on SmartVoice and other cost effective voice and data solutions.