When Broadband is Hard to Find

By: John Shepler

If your business is located downtown in a major metro area, the idea of network and telecom services being hard to find seems a little odd. You probably have at least a couple of competitive providers vying for your business, as well as the local telephone company. Your challenge is to find the best deal on connectivity, trunk lines and cloud services. There are likely options available that you don’t even know about.

If you are located in a rural area or working from a home office, this wealth of opportunity may be missing. You may feel that nothing is available or you are stuck with a single option that’s a real stretch for your budget. Actually, there may be more bandwidth options available than you think.

T1 Lines are Readily Available
Businesses with their own commercial addresses have it the easiest. They can almost always get at least some traditional telecommunications services. These include POTS phone service and T1 lines. Both use the same twisted pair copper cables that connect nearly every building.

T1 started out as a telephone trunking service, but has been used for dedicated private lines and Internet access for decades. Each T1 line provides 1.5 Mbps in both the upload and download directions. Today that’s pretty low-end broadband, but it’s more than sufficient for credit card verification, email and simple Web access. You can also run backups to the cloud and connect with headquarters.

Boosting T1 Bandwidth
Not enough bandwidth? T1 lines can be bonded together to create a larger data pipe. Two bonded lines gives you 3 Mbps, 4 lines offer 6 Mbps and so on up to 10 or 12 Mbps. Bonded T1 is highly reliable and readily available. You might find it a bit pricey because there is no economy of scale. Two lines cost 2x one line. Even so, out in the boonies T1 and bonded T1 is likely well worth the cost. That cost has dropped precipitously in the last few years, by the way. If you haven’t taken a look at T1 lately you may be surprised by the value. Even so, expect to spend a couple hundred dollars a month or more for T1 service.

Broadband From Space
Another service almost universally available is two-way satellite or VSAT. Many small retail locations use satellite for their transaction processing and connectivity to HQ. Satellite bandwidth has been similar to T1 at a somewhat lower cost. More advanced satellites now offer bandwidths of 10 Mbps or more for a higher price. The thing to know about satellites is that they can connect anywhere in the country with a clear view of the southern sky. You can even power the equipment “off the grid.” Limitations are that bandwidth is shared and you are generally limited in the amount of data you can upload or download each month. Latency is also high, making the service hard to use for VoIP telephony. Compare that with dedicated line services that offer low latency and have no usage limits.

Broadband From Cell Towers
If your needs are modest, you may get by with 3G or 4G fixed wireless. This is a fancier “all office” version of a smartphone hotspot. If you can get smartphone broadband at your location, this service should work for your office or store. Just know that usage is limited and sometimes involves overage charges. It’s great for transaction processing and simple Internet usage, but not for heavy video usage and software downloads.

What’s Available for the Home Office?
SOHO (Small Office Home Office) users generally choose DSL or Cable broadband because of the low cost with decent performance. It’s not uncommon to get all the speed you need for $50 or so. You won’t find anything like those prices with T1 or bonded T1 lines. That’s because the bandwidth is shared among many customers and is a “best effort” rather than guaranteed availability service.

I often get inquiries from home office users who can’t get or don’t “like” their cable or DSL choices, but are shocked at the cost of more reliable and higher performing business telecom services. Are there any other options available?

You, too, can get two-way satellite service. You may be quite happy with it or be frustrated by the latency (time delay hesitation), usage limits, and interruptions during bad weather. It depends on what you are doing.

Fixed Wireless for SOHO Use
How about fixed wireless? If you can get good cellular service, you might consider something like a “Mi-Fi” hotspot that creates a WiFi hotspot using bandwidth on your 3G or 4G LTE cellular plan. This lets you use your desktop and laptop computers, tablets and other Internet devices on the same Internet access available from your smartphone. Once again, this is “light duty” service that is great for limited or emergency usage, but not for consistently heavy traffic.

Other Wireless Options
Another option that’s available in some areas but not others is non-cellular fixed wireless. These are WISPs or Wireless Internet Service Providers. Generally, these companies install a small dish or antenna on your home or office building and give you a wired connection for your router. You’ll need to look for these locally, as they are typically local enterprises not connected with nationwide providers. You also need to be within line of sight from their tower or towers and not too far away.

Call for Fiber… Maybe
How about fiber optic service? Verizon, Google and other companies have been building out fiber systems in select locations around the country. If you are lucky enough to be within one of these service footprints, you can get a lot of bandwidth for the money with FTTP (Fiber to the Premises).

Finding Home Office Broadband
If you are have a home office, you can try checking for DSL/Cable services or 3G/4G cellular wireless. You can also do an Internet search for satellite broadband from Dish Network, DIRECTV and others. Look locally for non-cellular fixed wireless.

Finding Business Location Bandwidth
If your business has a commercial location, then the Telarus GeoQuote search on Megatrunks.com is for you. This service gives you instant pricing for T1 lines, DS3 bandwidth, Ethernet over Copper, fiber optic and business grade Cable broadband. A quick inquiry will also get you quotes on VSAT and high capacity fixed wireless services appropriate for your business locations.


Note: Photo of Monument Valley courtesy of Josep Renalias on Wikimedia Commons.

Broadband Insurance Keeps You in Business

By: John Shepler

Our 24/7 connected lives offer some real advantages for consumers and both sales opportunity & productivity improvements for business. Technology is a thing of beauty… until it isn’t. When your broadband line goes down, you are really, really isolated. Is there anything that can insure you against such a disaster?

Indeed, there is. Consumers have the option of using their 3G or 4G wireless service as a backup for DSL and Cable. The latest smartphones let you set them up as wireless hotspots. Just network your PC, laptop, notebook , tablet and printer to the smartphone and you can carry on. The connection speed may not be as fast as you are used to and you have to be very careful not to exceed your monthly quota. Even so, in a pinch, you can continue to use the Internet when the landlines go down.

Another emergency option is to plunk yourself down in a Wi-Fi hotspot and connect through OPB (Other People’s Broadband). Worst case, you’ll have to buy some lunch or coffee to stay a welcome guest. Other hotspots are in stores or at public libraries where you aren’t expected to actually buy something… at least not right away.

One glitch in this approach is that the same disaster that took your line service down may have also affected the WiFi hotspots in your area. I had this happen when some overzealous backhoe operator chopped the fiber trunk cable in half. It took a couple of days to get 100 plus fiber strands spliced back together. My preferred hotspot and others in the area had been hit by the same outage. I wound up going across town to find a place that still had signal.

While these extraordinary measures can save the day for consumers and some very small businesses, clearly camping out at free WiFi hotspots or glomming onto your smartphone’s diminutive bandwidth budget isn’t going to work for the majority of small office & retail or larger business operations. If your company depends on Internet connectivity to conduct business, a broken connection means you are temporarily out of business.

Fear not. There are solutions for every size company that can keep you connected worldwide no matter what. The Internet itself is amazingly robust. It was designed to handle all types of natural and man-made disasters and still get those packets from source to destination. The weak link is the last mile connection. The reason for this discrepancy is that the Internet core has path redundancies designed in. Any last mile connection is a single point failure just waiting to happen.

This suggests that the way to create a more robust broadband connection is to add redundancy. A popular way to do this has been to has been to order multiple diverse connections to the Internet. For instance, a company might order two T1 lines and specify that they must come from different suppliers and not in the same wiring bundle. You can scale this up to higher bandwidth options, including fiber optic services. The key is that you must be sure that there isn’t a line cut or equipment failure that can take out both your services at once.

There is also a business grade 3G/4G wireless solution from Accel Networks that works well for smaller companies. This is a fixed location receiver with a high performance antenna to ensure a high quality signal at your location. You can order it with enough capacity to handle things like Point of Sale terminals, inventory management, and general Internet access.

A highly desirable feature of redundant network solution is automatic failover. The Accel network continuity solution has this feature. Your users may not even know that the main network connection failed. Work continues using the backup link, perhaps at a smaller bandwidth level.

For landline solutions, MegaPath is offering a “Managed Broadband Failover” solution. They install and monitor CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) that handles the switchover between main and backup links. One really nice feature of this service is that the monitoring notes the main line failure and initiates troubleshooting and repair activities to get you back on the main circuit as soon as possible.

Are you concerned that your business is vulnerable to a loss of connectivity with the Internet, your data center across town, or your cloud service providers? Check out broadband network continuity services that can insure you keep running.

New and Used Verizon Cell Phones

There’s no doubt that Verizon Wireless is one of the world’s major cellular carriers. In the United States, Verizon is a leader in 4G wireless technology with both Apple iPhone and Android phones. Their coverage blankets the nation. There’s a lot to like about Verizon. Now, the decision is whether you want to buy new or buy used to get your next Verizon cell phone.

New phones for the Verizon Wireless network are on the cutting edge. You say you want a revolution? Well, you know we all want to change our phones. The LG Revolution is one that will get you to make that change. (It was too easy.) It sports an array of advanced features, starting with 4G LTE capability. You can expect download speeds of 5 to 12 Mbps and upload speeds of 2 to 5 Mbps when operating in Verizon 4G Mobile Broadband areas. Venture outside of 4G range and you’ll move to 3G wireless capability.

Why hog all that 4G goodness to yourself? You’ll be the hit of the coffee shop or the offsite meeting when you allow up to 8 WiFi enable devices to connect to the Internet through your 4G smartphone. When in range of a wireless access point, you can save your 4G allotment by using WiFi b/g/n as your broadband connection.

This revolutionary phone sports a 4.3 inch touchscreen and runs the Android 2.2 platform on a 1 GHz Hummingbird processor. A unique feature is wireless charging capability. You can recharge your Revolution in under 4 hours by sitting it on an optional charging pad.

You might expect a phone this powerful to have high performance multimedia capabilities. You’d be right. You’ll enjoy movies on-the-go with a preloaded Netflix app. You can share your photos and videos with DLNA streaming to HD TV sets. Make your own videos using the 5 Megapixel rear-facing auto-focus camera that captures 720p HD video. There’s also a 1.3 Megapixel front-facing camera for video chatting. That’s an excellent use of 4G capability.

There’s a lot more you’ll get with the LG Revolution, but one thing you won’t get is a bill for the phone itself if you order it with new Verizon Wireless service. That’s right, this phone is free with a new contract when you buy online. That’s how many people keep updating their cell phones. They just commit to a new 2 year contract and get a new phone to replace the one they’ve been using.

Other people would rather not make that new contract commitment but don’t want to pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars for the latest cell phone models. This is especially true if they are half-way through a contract and disaster strikes their phone. You'll never set it down on top of the car again, will you? If you are looking for a replacement, a second phone or one you can take to the job site and now worry too much about what will happen to it, you may be in the market for a good used phone.

Aren’t used phones the old dogs that nobody wants? Not by a long shot. Here are some that are currently available in excellent condition and at huge discounts. How about the HTC Droid Incredible, the Motorola Droid Pro WiFi 3G or Motorola Droid 2 Bluetooth? There’s an excellent Motorola Droid X2 available for your perusal right now. All of these are guaranteed to work on the Verizon Wireless network. Other phones are available for AT&T or other cellular networks. Selection varies constantly, so check the current specials for used, refurbished and unlocked cell phones.

Fascinated By The Samsung Fascinate

Are you familiar with the Samsung Galaxy S series of smartphones? Remember that name. This is the hottest design in cellular phone technology since the venerable Motorola RAZR phones. The whole idea of Galaxy S is to give you a mobile telephone, handheld computer, multimedia center and gaming device in a single ultra-portable package. The Samsung Fascinate for Verizon Wireless is the latest addition to this Galaxy S line.

The technology is as fascinating as the name. This phone sports a 4 inch Super AMOLED screen for a brighter image both indoors and outside where it is really bright. The 1 GHz Hummingbird processor gives you the computing power needed to deal with today’s streaming media. The integrated 5 Megapixel digital camera has both autofocus and the ability to record HD video on the go. Couple that with a DivX video player and MP3 music player.

Software for the Samsung Fascinate is equally impressive. It starts with the Android 2.1 operating system and all the apps that Android supports. You can text with Swype by simply sliding your finger over the letters to draft a text message. An integrated social hub unifies content from your Facebook, Twitter, Email and IM accounts.

How about connectivity? You’ll be connected to the Verizon Wireless 3G network, running the EV-DO Rev A cellular broadband standard. You also have WiFi capability and the ability to create a 3G Mobile HotSpot to wirelessly connect with up to 5 devices. Share your bandwidth or keep mum and enjoy it all to yourself. Oh, is that your boss over there needing a connection? Better enable that device if you know what’s good for your career!

Other fascinating features of this Samsung smartphone include integrated GPS with support for voice-guided, turn-by-turn directions by VZ Navigator. You can download a movie the day it is released with the Blockbuster mobile app. Catch your favorite football team in action with the new NFL mobile app.

Are you fascinated with this exciting new phone? Would you like to have one at a tremendous online discount? If so, learn more and order your Samsung Fascinate for Verizon Wireless now.

Of course, there are many other Android smartphones and other smart and basic cell phones available free or at a deep discount. Check out today’s special deals at Cell Phone Plans Finder and pick your favorite.

Novatel MiFi 2200 Makes YOU a WiFi Hotspot

If that's a WiFi hotspot in your pocket, they're going to be glad to see you. That is, if you're willing to share. For making instant friends, the MiFi has more potential than a box of hot donuts. Just be the only one on the bus or in the waiting room with broadband connectivity and you'll have them eating out of your hand.

What's a MiFi? It's the latest mobile Internet gadget, and perhaps the product introduction of the year. You've seen those little portable routers that you can carry in your briefcase? This is better. This is a WiFi hotspot that slips into a shirt pocket. With it you can provide 3G connectivity to up to 5 WiFi devices within a 30 foot radius.

How does it work? The Novatel MiFi combines a wireless modem aircard with a wireless router in a package smaller than a touchscreen cellphone or a good size candy bar. It measures a mere 2.5" x 2.3" x 0.4" and weighs-in at 2.1 oz. In addition to the aircard and router, there's a rechargeable Li-Ion battery good for 4 hours of continuous use and 40 hours of standby. There's also a micro-USB connector so that you can plug the MiFi into a computer and charge it or use the handy wall charger as needed.

The way it works its magic is that the wireless modem aircard connects to a cellular broadband signal, in this case one from Verizon Wireless towers. Verizon has been a leader in 3G wireless for cell phones using the EV-DO data standard. The MiFi will run on just about any Verizon tower signal it can get, although some out in the boonies might be on the slower 1XRTT standard. That means that anywhere you can get reliable Verizon cellular service, you can have an Internet connection for your hotspot.

Now, you have a choice. You can keep the MiFi hidden discretely in your pocket or bag and just say that your laptop computer is configured to pick up cellular broadband. Or you can be generous and offer to share your mobile Internet signal with up to 4 other grateful nearby users. That's the function of the built-in wireless router. It works just like the one at home, except no wires.

What are the hottest cell phone deals available right now, including free cell phones? Use the Cell Phone Plan Finder to check out the top phones and associated wireless service plans.