Ethernet Fiber Replaces Bonded T1

By: John Shepler

It’s not surprising T1 lines have been the most popular connectivity solution for businesses for decades. This is an exceptionally mature and versatile technology that you can use for private lines, dedicated Internet access and telephone trunking. The one weakness of T1 is bandwidth. It’s a rock solid 1.5 Mbps. No more, no less. In these days of cloud applications and real time HD video, what can we do about the T1 bandwidth limitation?


Solution #1: Bonded T1 Lines
Seems like the way to double the bandwidth of a T1 line from 1.5 to 3 Mbps is to add a second T1 line. You can do this yourself with a WAN aggregation appliance like the “Truffle” from Mushroom Networks. Or, you can simply order a second T1 line from the same provider and have them “bonded.” Carriers do this with terminal equipment at both ends of the circuit.

Bonding is simply a process of melding the bandwidth of the two lines so they act as one larger pipe. The nitty gritty details of how this is accomplished is invisible to you, the user.

A nice feature of bonding is that it can be extended beyond two T1 lines. You can bond 3 lines to get 4.5 Mbps, 4 lines to get 6 Mbps, and so on. All you need are enough extra twisted pairs in your telco line bundle to provide the additional T1s. The practical limit is 10 to 15 Mbps. Then, we’re back to the bandwidth issue… and one more thing.

The Ugly Side of Line Bonding
T1 line bonding works just great. It is a well established technology that is highly reliable. It’s just that it is a bit… expensive.

The downside of bonding is not technical. It’s financial. There’s no real economy of scale when you bond T1 lines. Each line has a certain cost that is made up of loop and port charges. Nowadays this is typically a few hundred dollars per line, but varies with location. That’s a lot lower cost than in years past, but it still adds up when you need a bunch of lines to get enough bandwidth. In short, two lines cost twice as much as one. Three make that 3X, and so on.

Why Fiber Makes Sense
T1 used to be the affordable bandwidth solution, while fiber was priced too high for all the but the largest businesses. That’s all changed thanks to technology and competition.

The first big recent advance in fiber optic bandwidth service has been a transition from circuit switching to packet switching technology. The original protocol was called SONET. It’s still available and popular for some applications, such as service provider backbone networks. SONET is a circuit switched protocol designed to be directly compatible with traditional T1 and T3 telephone lines. Bandwidth starts at 155 Mbps and goes on up to 40 or 100 Gbps.

The newer technology is called Carrier Ethernet and it is a packet switched technology directly compatible with Ethernet based Local Area Networks. Carrier Ethernet can easily extend your network across town or even internationally. It also supports enterprise VoIP telephone systems when configured as SIP Trunks.

Carrier Ethernet can be available in both copper and fiber optic connections. Fiber is fast becoming the connection of choice because it is easily affordable at lower bandwidth levels and scalable up to 10 Gbps or even 100 Gbps if needed.

Why Fiber is the New Bonded T1
The obvious advantage of fiber optic transmission is getting rid of the bandwidth ceiling on copper technology solutions. While 10 Mbps is considered high bandwidth for bonded T1, it is low bandwidth for fiber. Once you have fiber installed, you’re set for the future.

This is especially true for Ethernet over Fiber technology. It is designed to be easily scalable up to the limit of the installed port. Say you have a 1000 Mbps port installed, a typical service option. You can then order any bandwidth you like up to 1000 Mbps without any equipment changes. A simple phone call is all it takes to change your bandwidth, often the same day. Some carriers even allow you to manage your own service through a Web browser.

Nearly unlimited bandwidth is one advantage of Carrier Ethernet. The other is cost. While bonded T1 costs scale linearly with the number of lines, Ethernet over Fiber costs go up much less between bandwidth levels. A 10X bandwidth increase with T1 can cost 10X as much as a single line. The same 10X bandwidth upgrade might raise the price only 3X. Even at the low end of the bandwidth scale you can often get at least twice as much bandwidth choosing Ethernet over T1 for the same money.

But Is Fiber Really Available?
The competition from many new carriers offering Ethernet over Fiber means both lower costs and more availability. The upgrade from 3G to 4G wireless alone has spurred a massive build-out of fiber infrastructure to support all those cellular towers. Business demands for cloud applications and higher bandwidth that can handle video and large file transfers is also encouraging more fiber construction and lower prices.

The bottom line is that fiber optic bandwidth is far more available than it was just a few years ago. If you have a new application or just haven’t checked your options in awhile, it is well worth your while to see if Ethernet Fiber can replace those legacy T1 lines to give you more bandwidth and a more attractive lease price.



Note: Products with the humorous theme "I Definitely Need More Bandwidth" shown on this page are available through the Gigapacket Zazzle Store.

Ethernet Over Copper Companies Expand Services

Ethernet over Copper (EoC) has been the David to the T1 Goliath. That’s changing fast. While T1 lines won’t be knocked out anytime soon, the expansion of EoC by Ethernet over Copper companies is bringing more options to more service areas every day.

An example is the aggressive buildout by Integra Telecom into 120 telephone company central offices (COs) serving more than 400,000 businesses. Why colocate in telco offices instead of just building your own points of presence?

The answer has to do with the copper. Copper is gold in the telecom world. He who has the gold, and to some extent makes the rules, is by law the Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs), also known as the local telephone companies. All that twisted pair copper in the ground and flying overhead was put there by the ILECs for their own use. Under deregulation, they lease it out to competing carriers, like Integra, who install their own equipment to access that copper within the ILEC COs.

It’s only the last mile that Integra and other carriers lease. The rest of the signal path is through their own proprietary networks. By using that last mile of twisted pair copper wires, EoC providers can provision anywhere from 2 to 45 Mbps of Carrier Ethernet bandwidth and services. That’s faster than even bonded T1 lines can go and competes with low end fiber optic services. That makes connectivity available in the two-thirds of business buildings that aren’t yet lit for fiber.

So, what can you expect from Ethernet over Copper? First of all, it’s Ethernet. This is the same protocol that runs on your network. When adapted to run on telecom services, it’s called Carrier Ethernet. This makes the interface to your network as simple as plugging into a standard RJ-45 Ethernet connector installed by the carrier.

Even more important, your traffic stays on Ethernet as it traverses the path between company locations. The Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), an industry standards group, has created several Carrier Ethernet services that support business connections. The first is Ethernet Private Line (EPL). This is similar to the point to point T1 service you may have now. It connects two locations with a Ethernet Virtual Circuit (EVC) for the exclusive use of your traffic.

One difference is that you have a wider range of bandwidth choices available. The other very noticeable difference is that Ethernet services tends to be considerably more cost effective than T1. You can typically get 3 Mbps EoC for the same price as 1.5 Mbps T1. As you increase bandwidth, the cost savings get even more attractive.

A related service is Ethernet Virtual Private Line (EVPL). This is a point to multipoint connection. You could use EVPL to establish a star network with your headquarters location in the center, connecting many other business locations.

Another service gaining popularity is E-LAN or Ethernet LAN service. This is an Ethernet based cloud networking service that connects multiple locations in a meshed arrangement. Because it is Ethernet, you can use it as a bridged network connection to join the LANs at all of your diverse business locations so that they operate as one very large company network.

Ethernet over Copper offers you an expanded range of services than what you have now with an expanded bandwidth selection that is easily scalable and less costly than traditional telecom services. The one question is whether you can get EoC yet? With the rapid deployment by many carriers, the answer is probably YES. Want to find out? Get availability and pricing for Ethernet over Copper services suitable for your business locations.

EoC Takes On Fractional DS3

Before Carrier Ethernet became widely available, you had two logical migration paths from T1 to gain more bandwidth. You could take the big step up to T3 or DS3 service or bond T1 lines for a more incremental approach. EoC or Ethernet over Copper gives you a new and very attractive dedicated bandwidth option.

T1 lines have become popular because they are so readily available and have offered the right bandwidth for smaller companies and specialized uses by larger companies. A T1 line is rated at 1.5 Mbps in both the upload and download directions.

The other line service in the same T-Carrier family is T3 rated at 45 Mbps in both the up and down directions. At one time T3 was delivered over microwave and coaxial cable or waveguide, but that is rare to find now. Instead, the digital service the T3 delivers, DS3, is widely available over SONET fiber optic service. It is transported over a standard SONET service, OC-3, which can carry three DS3 services multiplexed onto the OC-3 fiber. DS3 is then demultiplexed and dropped off at the demarcation point through a standard DS3 interface. That interface is two small diameter coaxial copper cables with BNC connectors.

This works for a lot of companies. If you happen to be in a metropolitan area where metro fiber is readily available, it’s not hard to get provisioned for DS3 service. If you can make good use of 45 Mbps bandwidth and can afford it, DS3 is a fast and reliable telecom service. The question is what to do if you don’t need 45 Mbps, the budget isn’t there, but 1.5 Mbps is really cramping your style.

There are a couple of traditional approaches that can help you out here. One is to move up incrementally from T1 service. The other is to order a fractional DS3 service. It’s DS3 that’s throttled back do deliver less bandwidth at a lower cost.

You may be wondering how you scale up from T1 since DS3 is the next step up in the digital hierarchy. The answer is to combine the bandwidth of multiple T1 lines in a bonding process. You can order a second T1 line and have it bonded to the one you have to get 3 Mbps instead of 1.5 Mbps. Later on, you can add more lines and gradually work your way up to 10 or 12 Mbps. That’s pretty much the practical limit of T1 line bonding.

There are a couple of advantages to this approach. First, you don’t have to make a big bandwidth or cost commitment because you are moving up incrementally. This is the way a lot of businesses grow so it’s a good match. Second, your T1 service is provisioned over twisted pair telco wiring that’s likely already in place for multi-line telephone service. The added T1 lines use vacant pairs in the binder group, the bundle of wires that runs from your location back to the telco central office.

Why is that important? Because it eliminates big construction costs which you may not be able to avoid if you have new fiber optic service installed. If no DS3 is available, you may be stuck with copper or forced to pay a large construction bill. Even if DS3 is an option, fractional DS3 service may not save you that much money over a full DS3 service. The cost savings is not proportional to the bandwidth reduction.

Is there a good solution for this dilemma? Oh, yes. There is now. It’s a fairly new service called Ethernet over Copper or EoC. Like T1, EoC is provisioned over twisted pair telco wiring that is already installed. Like fractional DS3, you can get bandwidths far above what T1 lines offer. Unlike either bonded T1 or DS3 and fractional DS3, EoC has a very attractive per-Mbps pricing.

2x2 Mbps and 3x3 Mbps are very popular Ethernet over Copper services for smaller businesses. The 2x2 means 2 Mbps upload and 2 Mbps download. It’s also called 2 Mbps EoC. The 3 Mbps bandwidth level works similarly. What you might not know is that you can get 2 or 3 Mbps EoC for the same price as a 1.5 Mbps T1 line. Exactly how much you can get for T1 price levels depends on how competitive the carriers are in your location. Either way, it’s more bandwidth for the same money.

The other interesting feature of Ethernet over Copper is that you can easily get 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and perhaps even 45 Mbps delivered over copper and not fiber. Pricing per Mbps beats T1 and DS3 and can be as little as half the monthly cost. The limiting factor is distance from the CO. Ethernet over Copper technology is distance limited and not readily available more than a mile or two from the central office. Still, that covers a majority of business locations nationwide.

Are you stymied by the lack of bandwidth options or the costs involved in trying to connect via T1 or DS3? If so, check out Ethernet over Copper prices and availability for your particular business locations. You may be surprised by how much you can get for your bandwidth dollar.

3 Mbps T1 vs EoC Throwdown

There’s a battle that’s been brewing for a couple of years and is now raging in full force in many markets. That’s the contest between bonded T1 lines and Ethernet over Copper. Regardless of who the technical winner is, the business winner could be you.

Let’s take a step back and review just what this battle is about and who the players are. Ultimately, it’s all about bandwidth and cost. Bandwidth needs to go up and cost needs to come down. Why? Because businesses are becoming more and more dependent on connectivity. They are especially tied to the Internet, but also need to connect privately to remote data centers and clouds. Telephone connectivity is moving from a completely separate service to something tied-in with data connections and/or the Internet.

The two technology contenders in fierce competition are T1 lines, the reigning champ, and Ethernet over Copper (EoC), the up and coming challenger. In some ways, these services are more alike than different. Both are wireline services. In fact, both use the exact same twisted pair copper telco wiring that comes in multi-pair cables from the incumbent telephone company. That’s your business telephone wiring. What you may not realize is that there are extra wires in that cable that can be used for private data lines or Internet connections. What else you may not realize is that there are many competitive carriers who would like to provide you with those digital services.

How is this possible if the cable bundle runs directly to the telephone company’s central office? By law, the local or incumbent phone company owns the copper telephone wires that run underground or overhead. However, other companies can lease the unused pairs. In fact, other companies can even install their own termination equipment within the phone company’s office. That lets competitive carriers offer services that compete with phone company offerings or even services that the phone companies don’t offer.

T1 line service was actually developed by the telephone industry to transport multiple telephone calls on one line. Later on, it was offered to business as a way to connect to the Internet or for private point to point data lines between two locations. T1 line technology has matured to where it is well entrenched with small, medium and larger companies. T1 can be provisioned just about anywhere you can get landline telephone service. It runs at 1.5 Mbps in both the upload and download directions. T1 is often offered with a Service Level Agreement (SLA) that guarantees availability.

The 1.5 Mbps bandwidth of a T1 line was once its main selling point. Today, 1.5 Mbps is more of an entry level service, especially for Internet access. Fortunately, there’s a solution for that. Just add more T1 lines. The trick is to combine their bandwidth through a process known as bonding. You can bond 2 to 8 T1 lines this way to get anywhere from 3 to 12 Mbps over ordinary copper telco wire. The most popular level right now is dual-bonded T1 for 3 Mbps. Many smaller companies don’t need any more bandwidth than that. The price for bonded service is the cost of one T1 lines times the number of lines you bond. There is no economy of scale.

The direct competitor to dual-bonded T1 is Ethernet over Copper or EoC. It also uses multiple copper pair, but a different modulation scheme than T1 to transport the signal down the line. The tradeoff is bandwidth vs distance. EoC is highly sensitive to the length of the telco line. Close to the Central Office (CO), you can easily get 10, 20, 30 or up to 50 Mbps. A few miles away you get can’t get any service at all. Forget EoC out in the countryside. This is a city service.

One big reason that companies choose EoC instead of T1 is that they can get higher bandwidth without the expense of bringing in fiber optic services. The construction costs can be prohibitive if your building isn’t already “lit” with fiber. The other big reason to go with Ethernet over Copper is cost. A 3 Mbps EoC service will cost about the same as 1.5 Mbps T1. Another popular option is to move up to 10 Mbps for about the same price as dual or triple bonded T1, depending on location.

Which service will win the “battle of the bandwidths?” For now, they’re pretty well matched, with T1 having the advantages of near universal availability and being the incumbent service. EoC is coming on strong, as companies find they need higher levels of bandwidth and like the price advantage of Ethernet over Copper.

How about your situation? Which bandwidth service is right for your company? Why not get competitive prices quotes for both T1 and EoC to check out your options. Chances are, you can get better deals now than you could even a year ago.



Note: Photo of boxers courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Find Fiber On-Net Buildings

Say that you are looking to move your offices to a new location. Assuming that you don’t build, you’ll be looking to buy or rent an existing suite of offices. Everybody compares rents, taxes, floor space, neighborhood, proximity to transportation, parking and so on. What they often forget to consider is where they are going to get their network connections.

It’s trendy to say that bandwidth is a utility, just like gas, electric and water. It should be that way and someday it will. Unfortunately, that day is not today. You can be pretty sure that any office building you’ll consider will have hookups for electricity, water, sewer and likely natural gas. It will also be wired for multi-line telephone service. This is the reason bandwidth is so easily forgotten. Telephone service is a given. Shouldn’t other telecom services be assumed available?

Fiber optic connections are definitely not a given. You’ll be lucky to find one in four buildings on-net with a fiber carrier. On-net means that a particular carrier has already brought fiber into the building and activated it on their network. Far more likely that the building you are looking at will be off-net, especially for your favorite service provider.

It’s not necessarily the end of the world if your building is off-net. In many cases, fiber optic service is nearby and it’s only a short construction run to bring it in. Who is going to pay for that? If you are a big enough user and willing to commit to a long term contract, one or more carriers might just eat the construction costs themselves to get your business. If you are a small operator, you’ll be presented with the option of paying for the construction yourself or going with another option.

What other options are available? Copper-based services are getting faster and faster. Bonded T1 lines can take you to 12 Mbps or so. Ethernet over Copper can extend that to 15, 20 or 30 Mbps. You may be close enough to a provider’s facilities that you can get even higher speeds of 50 or 100 Mbps. The nice thing about copper is that it is already installed. Yes, that multi-line telephone cable contains extra twisted copper pairs that can be used for bonded T1 or Ethernet over Copper service.

A copper service not normally considered is HFC or Hybrid Fiber Coax. This is a bandwidth service provided over the infrastructure of the Cable TV companies. Cable operators have extensive fiber optic backbones and the ability to deliver bandwidth up to 100 Mbps or so over coaxial drops from their fiber runs. This is often fairly inexpensive compared to other solutions, so long as you can use asymmetrical shared bandwidth that fluctuates in speed. For general web access, email, and the like, HFC bandwidth is a great solution for many businesses.

Another option is fixed wireless. Your building needs to be within line of site of your service provider. They install an antenna and radio set on your roof and run that to your offices. It’s possible to get up to 1 Gbps using fixed wireless, if that service is available for your location.

If you are anticipating needing bandwidths of 1 Gbps, 10 Gbps or higher, it is far better to make sure that your building is on-net or can be made so at a reasonable cost before you sign any leases. You can do that by running a search for fiber lit buildings using the GeoQuote online tool. Just enter the address of the building you have in mind and you’ll get a map showing fiber availability and the distances to buildings where fiber optic service is present. From there, it is an easy matter to request competitive price quotes that include construction costs, if any. Copper, HFC and fixed wireless quotes will also be provided upon request.

Copper First, Then Fiber Bandwidth Solution

What do you do when you really need to get your business connected, but fiber optic service installation just isn’t going to happen soon enough? One option is to adopt a two-stage process that gets you going now and then steps up to the bandwidth you really need when it's available. The key is utilizing two different technologies to take advantage of their strengths.

Fiber optic bandwidth, either SONET or Ethernet, will get you the bandwidth you need for any conceivable application. The low end starts around 50 or 100 Mbps and goes up to at least 1 Gbps, with many locations eligible for 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GigE) or OC-192 SONET (10 Gbps).

Copper bandwidth, either T-Carrier or Ethernet, will get you the bandwidth you need much faster. That bandwidth, though, is going to be a lot slower than what you can get with fiber. T1 lines are reasonably priced, available almost anywhere, and can be installed in a matter of weeks. The base bandwidth is 1.5 Mbps. Not enough to even consider? Then multiply that bandwidth by bonding additional T1 lines. You can get 12 Mbps over T1 by bonding 8 T1 lines together to act as one big bandwidth pipe.

An alternative is Ethernet over Copper. This service uses the same twisted pair copper telco lines as T1, but has a more efficient modulation scheme. You can easily get 10, 20 or 30 Mbps using 8 copper pair. EoC technology trades off bandwidth and distance, unlike T1 which is 1.5 Mbps no matter how far you are from the central office. If you are within a mile from the CO and the office is properly equipped, you may be able to get 50 to 100 Mbps Ethernet over Copper. Those speeds are starting to get competitive with OC-3 (155 Mbps) and Fast Ethernet (100 Mbps).

If fiber is what you really want, you could be looking at months to complete the installation. That’s especially true if the metro fiber is running down one side of the highway and you are on the other side. Or, if the nearest fiber connection is blocks away in the city. It’s much faster if your building is already “lit” for fiber optic service, even if you are not a subscriber. Adding customers to an already existing fiber installation is relatively easy. It’s also reasonably fast and easy if there is a fiber lit building next door.

You’ve got the idea that fiber installations aren’t a given for any particular business location. Not yet, anyway. Some estimates are that less than 25% of all business buildings are lit for fiber optic service. On the other hand, nearly 100% of all business buildings are already being served with copper telco lines. Most often these are multi-pair bundles installed for multiple line telephone service. Unused pairs can be quickly pressed into service for Ethernet over Copper or T1 line service. After all, they are already hooked up at both ends of the cable run.

With that in mind, here’s a two step solution that I’ve seen work when a business needs both high bandwidth and fast installation. What you do is work with a carrier that has both copper and fiber technologies available. That’s fairly common now. Have them install bonded T1 or Ethernet over Copper at the highest bandwidth they can quickly install. At the same time, place an order for fiber optic service at the bandwidth you really need. The trick is to get an agreement that you can drop the copper service without penalty once your fiber service is turned up.

By working out this type of arrangement, you may get as much as half the bandwidth you need on a fairly quick schedule. By the time you get used to doing business on the copper lines, your fiber will be cut-in and it will seem like someone opened the bandwidth floodgates. You’ll only have to pay for one service at a time, although you might think about it and keep the copper connection as a backup for your fiber if the budget permits.

Do you have a situation that needs special consideration for connectivity? There may be more options than you think. Get consultation and bandwidth option prices and provisioning times now.

Pricing Slashed For Michigan 100 Mbps Business Internet

Businesses in Michigan, like businesses everywhere, are hurting for bandwidth. Between the increased use of video, business automation, and everything moving to the cloud, those aging T1 lines are starting to grind to a halt under the load. Bonded T1 will only take you so far. After that, it’s time to face an order of magnitude price jump to get into fiber optic services. Well, that’s how it was. Now there’s another option that offers fiber bandwidth at T1 prices. Is this for real?

Comcast Business Class 100 Mbps / 10 Mbps service is definitely for real and the answer to a profit squeezed company’s prayers. All of a sudden, that big constriction at the LAN/WAN interface is gone. Files move fast. Web pages pop before your eyes. Email? You could drown in all the email that can flood in at 100 Mbps.

So, how do you get OC-3 or Fast Ethernet bandwidth levels without the high cost of fiber? What you tap into is HFC or Hybrid Fiber Coax. That’s the technical name for the finely tuned network that Comcast has deployed in their vast service area. There are two types of transport technologies that are welded together in HFC. Hence, the hybrid designation. The core of the network is a robust fiber optic backbone that is worthy of any major carrier. The access connections are coaxial copper cable. You know it as TV cable. What you may not realize is just how much bandwidth that coax connection supports.

Cable TV companies started using coaxial cable back when they were little more than enormous master antennas. The same coax that connects from your outdoor TV antenna to the back of your TV set can also bring in a much larger set of channels from your Cable company. Decades ago, it was all analog on Cable and over the air. Now it’s all digital. The RF spectrum on the cable is still channelized, with one digital TV station per slot. There are a lot of TV channels to choose from, but they don’t use all the possible channels that the cable can support. Some of those channels have been set aside for broadband or telephone services.

Besides the analog to digital transition, the other thing that’s changed with Cable operations is deployment of a fiber optic backbone to interconnect the multiple systems that the Cable operator owns and bring all the programming content into the neighborhood. This fiber network has far greater capacity than the old style large diameter coaxial distribution cable.

If fiber is so great, then why not run it directly to homes and businesses? Someday, that’s what will probably happen. Right now, the economics say no. Fiber termination equipment is expensive. Trenching a roll of plastic coated copper coax and connecting it to a wall outlet is cheap. With the ability to deliver television, broadband Internet access and telephone on that inexpensive little line, who wants to pony up for fiber?

You don’t or you’d already have installed SONET OC-3, OC-12, OC-48 or Ethernet over Fiber service for your business. Either the construction cost is a show stopper or the monthly lease fees are more than your budget can handle. Now you have another choice with Comcast’s 100 Mbps business broadband. It’s inexpensive and it can be installed quickly for any business that the Cable infrastructure passes.

What makes this service so affordable? For one thing, the cost of the network is spread over thousands of television and broadband customers. For another, this is not a true telecom service like SONET or Ethernet. Those services are symmetrical in that they have the same upload and download speeds. If you need 100 Mbps in both directions, Comcast’s offering won’t work for you. It’s specified at up to 100 Mbps download and up to 10 Mbps upload. That configuration is exactly what you need for general Internet access, where uploads are few and small but downloads are frequent and massive.

Also note that Cable is shared and not dedicated bandwidth. An OC-3 fiber connection gives you 155 Mbps all to yourself. Whatever you don’t use sits idle until you need it. You are sharing the Cable bandwidth availability with other users so that the network is always in use. This sharing also means that your bandwidth will vary throughout the day depending on what everyone is doing online. Does it matter? It may or may not, depending on how important it is to you to have that 100 Mbps at your disposal at all times.

Finally, there are no service level agreements like you have with T1 lines and the like. This is a “best effort” information service that is offered as-is. Even so, Comcast takes its network seriously and works to keep it as reliable as possible. If you’ve used home Cable broadband and been happy with the way it performed, then you’ll probably be happy with the bigger, faster Business Class service that gives all your employees a similar level of service while accessing the Internet on their desktop computers.

Are you a Michigan business owner or IT manager who’s anxious for high speed Internet access at a very affordable price? Check into prices and availability for 100 Mbps Internet options at your location. Note that Comcast and other fast Internet services are also available for locations other than Michigan.



Note: Photo of Detroit skyline courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Copper Ethernet Line Prices Instantly!

You’re no doubt aware that Ethernet over Copper is making a strong challenge to be the bandwidth service of choice for businesses. How much of a challenge? The bandwidth increases and cost reductions are making it hard to choose anything else if EoC is available. Just how much can you get and for what price reduction? Why not check Ethernet over Copper prices instantly!



Through the magic of the Telarus GeoQuote automated pricing system, it’s now possible to get Ethernet quotes immediately any time you want. Simply use the handy input form you’ll find at CopperEthernet.com and you’ll be automatically set up to get Ethernet over Copper pricing.

How accurate are these prices? They could be considered budgetary pricing, although they are quite accurate. GeoQuote mimics the same procedures that carriers use to make service price quotes. If you go directly to a carrier, however, you’ll probably have to wait a few days or more to get the results back. You’ll also be limited to one provider's offers. Why settle for one quote when you can get several or more to compare?

Telarus is an award winning telecom and network services broker that has agreements with dozens of service providers. You get the same or better pricing through the GeoQuote system as you could by spending hours on the phone calling around for competitive quotes.

It is well worth your while to talk to a Telarus bandwidth consultant, as there are often short term special deals available that don’t show up in the automated results. Your consultant can let you know what’s on “sale” so you can make the best buying decision. At the end of the quote process, you’ll have the option to call Telarus toll free for further discussion or just click a link and a consultant will call you promptly.

You should also know that Ethernet over Copper isn’t the only service that’s available for instant price quotes. If you wish, you can explore options for T1 and bonded T1 lines, business Cable broadband, fixed wireless broadband, Satellite bandwidth, fractional and full DS3 services and Ethernet over Fiber. Yes, quotes are available for fiber optic services from 10 to 1000 Mbps using the same instant pricing process.

Are you anxious to see how much you could be saving over your current telecom services contract? Take just a minute from your busy day and get Copper Ethernet line prices instantly. After you see the results, you’ll probably want to take a few more minutes and call in an order.

Broadband Access Wireless Internet Providers

When we think of wireless Internet, the first thing that comes to mind is WiFi hotspots or 3G & 4G cellular broadband. It’s a mobile Internet technology, right? It is, but did you know that there are also wireless Internet services that are appropriate for fixed business locations like offices and retail stores?

One of the lowest cost wireless broadband services uses the same towers and resources that deliver broadband to your cell phone. Only this wireless service offered by Accel Networks is designed for fixed locations. What Accel has done is contract with major wireless carriers to use their bandwidth. By combining the coverage maps of several carriers, Accel can deliver 3G data rates to most locations that need it. You get similar bandwidth to a T1 line for about half the price. Installation is a matter of days, not weeks or months. Service reliability is 99.9% per the service level agreement.

Who is this service right for? It’s perfect for convenience stores, gas stations and other retail locations that need PCI compliant connection to process credit cards. Traditionally, these stores have ordered DSL, Cable broadband or satellite. When you are not on the path for wireline connections this wireless service can give you the bandwidth you need. You can even order it for temporary holiday locations, conventions and conferences, and construction sites.

Cellular broadband isn’t appropriate for applications where you need large amounts of continuous uploading and downloading. But there are fixed wireless services that are designed for just that. These are dedicated connections using directional antennas on special licensed frequencies for this service. The provider installs a small equipment and antenna box on the outside of your building and runs an Ethernet connection inside for your router. Dedicated fixed wireless can give you DS3 levels of bandwidth (45 Mbps) and replace bonded T1 lines and even lower speed fiber optic connections. The one kicker is that you need to be located near the carriers transmitting location, which is almost always downtown in a major metropolitan area.

Satellite is a two-way wireless service that has been popular with businesses that don’t need high bandwidth levels but do need connectivity in locations that have little to no wireline service and perhaps even no cellular service. These satellites are in geosynchronous orbit, just like the ones that deliver satellite TV service. The difference is that they are providing business broadband service. Satellite has the advantage that you can get service just about anywhere in the US where you have clear view of the southern sky and some way to provide electrical power. It doesn’t even have to be from the grid. Solar and batteries will work just fine.

Satellite and 3G cellular services are bandwidth limited and tend to have caps on the amount of data you can upload or download in a given period of time. They tend to have higher latency than wireline services. Geosynchronous satellites, especially, are unsuitable for such applications as VoIP telephony. But many businesses don’t need a broadband telephone service or video conferencing. What they do need is access to the Internet for email, credit card verification, viewing Web sites, using search engines, reporting inventory and ordering supplies, etc. These activities don’t require massive amounts of capacity or very high speeds.

If you have a business application that needs broadband access to the Internet but haven’t been able to find reasonably priced wireline services that meet your need, get prices and availability on broadband access wireless Internet providers that serve your business location.

Ethernet over Copper Solutions

Low to moderate business bandwidth solutions have long been served by T1 lines and bonded T1 lines. Now Ethernet over Copper solutions are taking over this space by offering more bandwidth for less money.

The services we’re talking about range from 1 to 20 Mbps and may be either a private line from point to point or a dedicated connection to the Internet. Ethernet standards also make possible a private LAN service to interconnect multiple business locations.

The basic T1 line runs at 1.5 Mbps. It was originally developed by the telephone industry to transport multiple telephone calls between switching centers. A service called T1 PRI or ISDN PRI is still popular for providing up to 23 digital phone lines to a business PBX system using only a single T1 line.

As a digital line, T1 can transport voice, video or data packets. This has led to T1 lines being used to interconnect two company locations with a private line. Some companies expand this by building a network out of T1 lines linking each branch office back to headquarters.

T1 lines have had the advantage of being both affordable and available. Average prices have dropped from over $600 a month just a few years ago to under $300 a month today. T1 lines are provisioned over ordinary twisted pair copper using the same copper bundles that bring in multi-line phone service. As such, T1 service is available just about everywhere you can get a telephone line.

Ethernet over Copper (EoC) is a direct competitor to T1 for a couple of reasons. First of all, EoC uses the very same twisted pair copper wires that are already installed into nearly every business location. The cost for basic Ethernet over Copper service is very similar to T1 lines, except that you get 2 or 3 Mbps rather than 1.5 Mbps for that price. This gives EoC a cost advantage for companies that could use a boost in bandwidth but don’t have extra money in the budget.

Both T1 and EoC can increase the bandwidth they deliver by employing more copper pairs to transport the signal. T1 uses a process called bonding to make two or more T1 lines behave as one larger data pipe. Ethernet over Copper is designed to be easily scalable from 1 to 20 Mbps. Some of the most popular bandwidths are 3 Mbps, 5 Mbps, 10 Mbps, 15 Mbps and 20 Mbps.

Both technologies have limitations. Bonded T1 lines start to become impractical above about 12 Mbps. The technology to go higher isn’t widely deployed and the cost goes up linearly with bandwidth. Ethernet tends to get cheaper per Mbps the more bandwidth you order and can easily support 15 and 20 Mbps levels, in some cases higher. Unlike T1, Ethernet over Copper is distance limited so that you can generally only get service in metropolitan areas. The closer to the nearest telco central office you are, the more bandwidth you can get.

Are you in a quandary over how to maximize your telecom budget dollar? If so or if you’re just curious about getting more Mbps for your money, compare Ethernet over Copper with T1 line service prices and see which makes the most sense for your business applications.

5x5 Mbps Ethernet over Copper Saves Money

Many companies wish they had more bandwidth, less telecom expense or both. There’s a new service called 5x5 Ethernet than may be just what you are looking for.

Ethernet services are fairly new on the scene. Prior to Ethernet becoming fairly common, your best bandwidth options were T1 lines and fractional DS3 bandwidth. Occasionally, fixed location wireless service has been available for locations with a nearby line of sight path to their service provider.

How do Ethernet services change the options mix? You can often get more bandwidth for less cost with Ethernet, including low bandwidth services over copper.

You’ll hear Ethernet services described as Metro Ethernet, Carrier Ethernet or by their bandwidth level. For instance, 5x5 Mbps Ethernet means a dedicated speed of 5 Mbps in both the upload and download directions. That symmetry is similar to what you get with other telecom services, but much different than the consumer oriented information services such as DSL and Cable broadband.

Symmetrical bandwidth is important if you expect to do file transfers between locations or backup your data to the cloud or a remote data center. Asymmetrical services with low upload speeds were designed for Web browsing. When you are requesting Web pages, there is a lot more data coming down than the few commands you are sending up to the server. That’s also true for video streaming, but not for video conferencing. In general, any two-way activity benefits from symmetrical bandwidth.

If you are currently using a T1 line or a few of T1 lines bonded together, sometimes called fractional DS3 bandwidth, you may well find that EoC or Ethernet over Copper is much more cost effective. You’ll get the same high quality of service that you expect from T1 or other telecom services. You’ll just pay less.

How much less? Let’s say that you want 5 Mbps symmetrical bandwidth to meet your need for file transfers, video conferencing, or dedicated Internet access. You could get close by bonding 3 T1 lines together to get 4.5 Mbps or 4 T1 lines for 6 Mbps. With T-carrier service, you need to move up in 1.5 Mbps increments.

The problem is that there is no economy of scale with T1 lines. Two lines cost twice as much as one line. Three lines, the number needed for 4.5 Mbps bandwidth, will cost you 3x the T1 line price. You also have to have new lines installed any time you want to increase bandwidth. There’s no cost savings in having extra capacity available.

Ethernet pricing is more than competitive with T1. You can often get 2 Mbps Ethernet for the same or less cost than a T1 line. Sometimes you can even get 3 Mbps for that price. Your 5x5 Mbps Ethernet will likely cost somewhere around twice the cost of T1 service but give you over 3 times the bandwidth. You might even do better. The reason these cost figures are vague is that pricing for both T1 and Ethernet is highly dependent on what services and competition are available for any particular business location.

Another thing you should know is that Ethernet over Copper uses the same twisted pair telco wiring that brings in T1 service. The technology uses multiple pair to increase bandwidth. That technology is also much more scalable than T-carrier services. What you want to do is install an Ethernet port capable of the bandwidth you expect to need for the foreseeable future. Then order the bandwidth you need right now. You should be able to quickly and easily increase your bandwidth at any time by simply contacting your service provider. No additional installation or construction delays should be necessary.

Are you ready to get some real numbers comparing Ethernet to T1 and DS3 services? Get pricing and availability for 5x5 Mbps Ethernet over Copper and other bandwidth services now.

Ethernet DS3 Bandwidth Comparison

Business bandwidth requirements have been steadily increasing since T1 lines became standard for dedicated Internet access and private point to point connections. If you are a current user of DS3 bandwidth services or considering an upgrade, you’ll be interested in how your various WAN bandwidth options compare.

The traditional high bandwidth network connection is DS3, a 45 Mbps service. This is also the speed of a T3 line. Today, most DS3 services are provisioned over fiber optic cables with a copper handoff at the demarcation point. In some cases, you can get DS3 brought in over coaxial copper or wireless transport.

DS3 is popular for dedicated Internet access in larger organizations, video transport, links to offsite backup and storage and smaller ISPs. DS3 telephony bundles hundreds of outside phone lines for large companies and call centers.

The competitor to DS3 is Carrier Ethernet, especially Metro Ethernet in larger cities. Ethernet services offer standardized speeds of 10, 100 and 1000 Mbps to match the common LAN speeds. But most Ethernet providers also offer other increments in 1, 5 or 10 Mbps steps. A 50 Mbps Ethernet service provides similar bandwidth to DS3.

So how do you choose one service over another? If you need the channelization of traditional TDM services for telephony or other applications, DS3 already meets this standard. It is easily multiplexed and demultiplexed to interface with T1 lines on the low end to OCx SONET fiber optic services on the high end.

Most networking applications are now packet based and more easily interfaced to Ethernet WAN services than legacy telco standards. But since the interface circuitry is generally an off the shelf router module, it may not matter all that much. If you go with a managed router, the service provider will take care of providing the proper customer premises equipment and monitoring the line and interfaces for proper operation.

To muddy the waters a bit more, fractional DS3 services are available that offer less than 45 Mbps for a lower monthly lease cost. You can often get the bandwidth you need by bonding T1 lines together to create increments of 1.5 Mbps up to around 10 or 12 Mbps bandwidth. Or you can get fractional DS3 bandwidth at the speeds where T1 bonding becomes impractical. On the Ethernet side, you can specify nearly any bandwidth from 1 Mbps up to 10 Gbps and often upgrade to higher levels with just a phone call to your service provider.

The fact is that DS3 and Ethernet bandwidths compare favorably. Which you choose for your particular application will most often be determined by which service offers the best pricing for your particular business location. How can you find that out? The easiest way is to check DS3 and Ethernet prices and availability using the GeoQuote online search tool.

Copper Thrives In The 21st Century

Alexander Graham Bell loved copper wire. His Bell Telephone Company and others strung it on poles and buried it in the ground until there were thousands upon thousands of miles of small gauge copper wire connecting nearly every home and business. And that’s the way it’s stayed for over 100 years. Now that we’re in the 21st century, all that copper is just another metallic element being reclaimed by nature as we move on to fiber optic cables. Isn’t that the way it is?



Nope. The fiber optic era was fantasized along with flying cars. Fiber technology has advanced farther than George Jetson’s personal vehicle, but it’s still copper that rules. Even the old stuff that’s been in the ground for decades is getting a new lease on life in the digital age.

Copper is so popular because there is so much of it. A century of standardization and build-out makes it very attractive to connect to those copper pair fastened to the plywood sheet in the telephone closet. You could insist on a more modern fiber optic termination, but there are no glass fibers on that plywood. If you want fiber, you have to pay to have it brought in. It probably costs no more than stringing new copper, but the copper’s already there. Somebody else paid to have it installed a long time ago.

But isn’t copper an old analog technology that can’t possibly keep up with today’s high speed network demands?

Well, it’s true that copper telco wiring was installed with analog signals in mind. But a flowing electron is a flowing electron regardless of whether it is part of a 48 volt battery current or a Ethernet packet. The physics of conduction doesn’t know the difference. Where we hit the wall was when we tried to send digital signals down a circuit that was still set up for analog telephony. Those were the dial-up modems that topped out at 56 Kbps. But do you know that those very same telephone wires now carry Megabit per second signals?

In fact, DSL shares the very same wires as analog telephone service. Instead of trying to mimic a phone call the way modems did, DSL sends digital signals on frequencies well above those you can hear. True, DSL signals fade out quickly over distance. But if there is a digital termination nearby you can transport as much as 100 Mbps to the home or business using DSL technology.

That distance restriction is removed if you use two pair of copper telephone wires to deliver T1 line service. The bandwidth is a solid 1.5 Mbps in both directions and is highly reliable. Where can you get T1 service? Just about anywhere you can get a regular telephone installed.

T1 is the most popular form of digital connection for business. It is used for telephone trunk lines with up to 23 phone lines carried by a T1 PRI trunk, also knows as ISDN PRI. Business broadband is provided by T1 dedicated Internet access. You can also get something called Integrated T1 that combines both telephone and Internet on the same line.

As the need for business bandwidth expands, copper remains viable. It’s easy to bond T1 lines together to multiply bandwidth by 2x, 3x, or even 10x. Bonded T1 line service allows businesses to add lines as network activity increases.

A newer and lower cost bandwidth option is EoC or Ethernet over Copper. This technology uses special termination equipment to bond multiple copper pair to deliver Ethernet Internet service at the standard 10 Mbps up to 45 Mbps. You can also order lower bandwidths if you don’t need 10 Mbps at this time.

Standard analog loops, DSL, T1 lines and Ethernet over Copper are extending the useful life for installed copper telephone wiring well into the 21st century. Eventually it will all be replaced by glass fibers, but probably not in this generation.

TelePacific Takes Business Continuity Seriously

TelePacific Communications, a competitive telecommunications carrier serving customers in California and Nevada, is taking a comprehensive approach to disaster planning and the need for business continuity that follows disasters natural and man-made.

Their Business Continuity Services are focused on maintaining your ability to use voice and data services in the event you lose a trunk line or even your entire facility. But how just how can you do that?

Let’s take a look at telephone first. Most medium and large size businesses, and some smaller businesses that are heavy users of telephone communications, are using digital trunk lines. T1 PRI and SIP Trunks provide one to two dozen outside lines for management by an in-house PBX system. That trunk line offers a considerable cost savings over multiple individual phone lines, but does represent a single point failure risk. With that in mind, you can backup your primary trunk line with a few individual analog POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) lines. The key is to have the phone system programmed to automatically switch over to the backup lines when the trunk goes down. Another approach offered by TelePacific is to have your incoming calls automatically forwarded to the backup lines.

Even smaller businesses using IP PBX systems or Analog Telephone Adaptors may keep one analog telephone line in service as an emergency backup. The idea is that a fault that takes out your digital data line may not affect the analog lines. In many cases, that’s true. But what happens if a construction accident cuts all the underground lines in an area or the ground opens up in an earthquake and breaks every wire in the area?

If all your telecom connections are out, you may have also lost power. In that case, TelePacific has the ability to forward your incoming calls to a number at another business location. You could also choose to have your most important numbers, such as your main phone line and FAX number, forward to a mobile phone or even a residence. If there are too many incoming calls for you to answer immediately, the overflow can be answered by voicemail at the carrier’s facility. You then have the option to listen to and return those calls from another location when time permits.

Data lines, such as Dedicated Internet Access, are subject to the same disasters that befall telephone lines. T1 lines are the most popular connections for business users. If all you have is a single T1 line and it goes down, your connection is broken until it is fixed. But bonded T1 lines can be set up so that if you lose one, the secondary or other T1 lines will keep running. Your bandwidth will be temporarily reduced, but you’ll still have broadband connectivity.

Of course, if all lines are cut you will lose data service coming in and going out of your business location. If you have a second business location you can set up a private IP VPN arrangement so that all traffic can be routed to the secondary location. If you have only a single facility or all of your offices are located so closely together that they might all lose power or communications in the same event, you probably want to think about using a colocation service. A carrier colocation facility is probably more robust than your onside data center. The facilities are built with extensive physical security, fire and flood control, and both battery and generator backup. They also have multiple incoming and outgoing trunk lines going in different geographical directions.

TelePacific offers colocation facilities as do other providers around the country. You can house your application servers there and have an email backup server in case your primary email server fails. Remote data storage is a necessity these days since the most important business documents are now electronic documents.

Do you feel a bit uncomfortable with your ability to conduct business in the event of a fire, flood, tornado, earthquake or other unforeseen disaster? If not, it’s worth your time and peace of mind to talk with an expert consultant who can recommend the most cost effective ways to ensure your business continuity. Find out now what TelePacific and other competitive carriers can do to ensure your voice and data reliability with a toll free call or online inquiry about business continuity options.

Backhaul Upgrades For Wireless Broadband

A funny thing happened on the way to mobile broadband. We ran out of bandwidth. While everyone was thinking that wireless channels would be the limiting factor, lack of backhaul capacity is threatening to stop wireless growth in its tracks. Fortunately, this limitation is recognized and being dealt with.

Just what is backhaul and why does it stand in the way of mobile services? Backhaul, as the term is used now, means the connection from the wireless tower site back to the provider’s central office or mobile switching center.

Backhaul is something you didn’t hear much about until recently. As cellular sites were originally envisioned, they consisted of a radio transmission system with spectrum divided into multiple channels. Those channels are used to communicate with the wireless handsets to transport telephone conservations. The backhaul system consists of T1 lines that offer up to 24 individual phone lines on a digital trunk.

The beauty of T1 lines is that they are provisioned on ordinary twisted pair copper. That’s right, they use telephone line. Each T1 requires two copper pair. But instead of carrying two phone conversations, the digital line can carry 24 conversations. That’s an efficiency improvement of 12x over analog telephony. Because they use ordinary telco cabling, T1 lines can be easily provisioned to both rural and urban tower sites.

T1 lines can also be used to carry broadband Internet services. Many businesses get their broadband service over a T1 line. All cellular phone companies need do is provide a data T1 line to the tower site and use some of the available wireless channels for Internet service. That gives the user both voice and data on their mobile device.

Everything worked smoothly until newer cell phones, especially the large touch screen models, made streaming audio and video and HTLM Web browsing possible. Video chews up bandwidth like crazy. If people expect to have a television watching experience on their cell phone, the cellular transmitters are going to need bandwidth and lots of it.

This is what’s underway now. The initial response to the increase in bandwidth utilization was met by bonding multiple T1 lines to create bigger bandwidth pipes out to the tower sites. But wireless broadband speeds are increasing by leaps and bounds. AT&T’s HSPA service for 3G mobile wireless offers a max download speed of 3.6 Mbps. They are currently in an upgrade mode to double that to 7.2 Mbps. The next generation technology is 4G using LTE that will offer speeds over 10 Mbps. Sprint and Clearwire are busy building out WiMAX, another 4G technology. Verizon is running EV-DO Rev A for it’s 3G network and will implement LTE for 4G, similar to AT&T.

What this means is a big demand for backhaul service to get the voice and data signals to and from the tower sites. Carrier Ethernet can address some of this demand over multiple copper pair. WiMAX is touted as both an end-user broadband service and a backhaul technology. It just depends on where the signals go. Ultimately, fiber optic cable is the solution to the backhaul bottleneck. Fiber has nearly unlimited capacity, but it is expensive to install where there is no fiber today.

It seems like there should be some synergy between the rural broadband initiative being pushed by the Federal Government and the need for higher bandwidths to carrier-owned cellular facilities. Why not just bite the bullet and get fiber to the boonies now? It won’t be long before that massive bandwidth is going to be a necessity rather than a luxury.

In the meantime, if you have a need for voice or data bandwidth for any business application, see what bandwidth options are available for your location. You may be surprised at how much you can get at a reasonable price these days.

Welcome To The Big Bandwidth Era

You remember the big band era? Tommy Dorsey? Glenn Miller?

No, I didn’t think so. It was a bit before my time, too, although I do enjoy the music of that era. Back then technology was radio and bandwidth was measured in cycles per second and kilocycles. Today, technology is digital and bandwidth is measured in Mbps and Gbps. Welcome to the big bandwidth era.

So how much bandwidth is needed to qualify as big? NuVox, a major competitive carrier, defines big bandwidth as anything over 10 Mbps. That’s the level that consumer Internet service providers are targeting, now that video is becoming the true killer app of the Web. It’s also where businesses are headed... and fast.

What’s driving that need for speed? Video is certainly part of puzzle, with many companies being both producers and users of online video. Cloud services are also a big emerging driver. By moving the server infrastructure and storage network into the cloud, companies see a way to get out of the expensive upgrade and maintenance cycles while still having the IT services they need. Add to that the mad scramble to replace everything paper with everything electronic, especially in the medical field, and you’ve got WAN networks getting pretty congested.

So, what does it take to get 10 Mbps or more connected to your network? T1 lines (1.5 Mbps) are still a readily available and affordable to get reliable business bandwidth. A industry standard process called bonding allows multiple T1 lines to act as one larger pipe with higher bandwidth. Two bonded T1 lines gives you 3 Mbps, four provides 6 Mbps, 8 bonded T1 lines will deliver 12 Mbps, a “big bandwidth” solution.

Another form of twisted pair copper transport is EoC (Ethernet over Copper) It uses the familiar telco trunk lines that are installed at most business locations. But special equipment at each end creates an Ethernet transport service. NuVox is offering a variety called Etherloop that is a half-duplex transmission technology capable of providing bandwidths up to 30 Mbps up to 10,000 feet from the carrier POP or Point of Presence.

Moving up from copper to fiber optic services, a very popular traditional service is DS3 at 45 Mbps. Other fiber based services include Fast Ethernet at 100 Mbps and Gigabit Ethernet at 1000 Mbps. Now we’re really talking about BIG bandwidth.

Is your company needing to move into the big bandwidth era? You’ll find that the cost of these higher capacity services may be much lower than when you looked into them a few years ago, thanks to competitive carriers like Nuvox. How much lower? Find out now by getting a quote for big bandwidth services available at your business location.

Metro Ethernet for Faster Access Connections

Businesses and organizations are bandwidth hungry these days. With an increase in interactive Web applications, cloud computing services, and electronic medical records, the speed of doing business is starting to be limited by the availability of WAN bandwidth. There's plenty of carrier bandwidth available at decent prices. The real speed bump is in the last mile connection from your location to the carrier's POP (Point of Presence). In metropolitan and suburban areas, the cost effective answer might be a move to Metro Ethernet.

What is Metro Ethernet? It's Ethernet transport that's compatible with the Ethernet you run on your company computer network. But this type of Ethernet is designed for the WAN (Wide Area Network) rather than the LAN (Local Area Network). The generic term is Carrier Ethernet. When provisioned for metropolitan area access and connectivity, it's often called Metro Ethernet.

So what's the advantage of Metro Ethernet over, say, a T1 line? Speed for one thing. A T1 line runs at a fixed rate of 1.5 Mbps. You can order less speed with fractional T1 service or you can bond T1 lines together to get higher speeds of 3 to 12 Mbps. But that's about where T1 tops out. While it is technically possible to bond even more lines together, it's seldom cost effective. By the time you exceed 10 Mbps, it's usually cheaper to bring in DS3 service at 45 Mbps over fiber optic cable.

Metro Ethernet can also be provisioned over fiber optic cable to give you standard Ethernet at 10 Mbps, Fast Ethernet at 100 Mbps or even Gigabit Ethernet at 1000 Mbps and 10 GigE at 10,000 Mbps. It's often significantly cheaper than traditional SONET fiber optic services because Metro Ethernet is offered by competitive carriers who have their own nationwide fiber backbones and fiber within the metro areas. Since they completely control their network assets and don't need to subcontract to local phone companies, these carriers can often offer large cost reductions. That's especially true when they are trying to establish a major presence in an area.

Another service that you'll find with Metro Ethernet that makes lower bandwidth services even more cost effective is EoC or Ethernet over Copper. This is what it sounds like. It's Metro Ethernet provisioned over multiple copper pair, similar to T1 lines. But a different modulation technology is used for EoC that is more efficient for packet transmission, but at a tradeoff of being distance limited. In other words, you need to be within a few miles of the nearest carrier POP to take advantage of this service. If you qualify, you can get Ethernet over Copper in bandwidths from 1 to nearly 50 Mbps at costs per Mbps often well below other line services.

But what if you are located in a smaller town or rural area? Remember those bonded T1 lines? You can probably get bonded T1 service at 3, 6, 9 Mbps or more anywhere you can get business telephone service. Chances are that this service will be far cheaper than bringing in new fiber optic lines.

How Many T1 Lines Do You Need?

When your business is small and you're frustrated by DSL or Cable broadband services, you may aspire to a professional grade T1 line. The high reliability and dedicated bandwidth of T1 lines has made them the preferred voice and data line service for business. But one day your business will be much larger and you'll be hitting the bandwidth limit on that once spacious T1. Now what?

Another situation is the high technology business, such as a Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) or video production company. You may look at the 1.5 Mbps bandwidth spec on a T1 line and know you need twice that or several times. Now what do YOU do?

In many cases, the answer is simply to order more T1 lines. Yes, you can do that. Multiple T1 lines are not at all uncommon for larger or more demanding business applications.

Let's take a typical example. A small call center has a PBX system with a T1 line interface card. The T1 line is configured for ISDN PRI service. That gives them 23 outside lines with fast call switching and Caller ID for each line. Soon that call center gets more customers and finds that even with 23 lines they are running out of capacity. The answer is simply to order another T1 line configured the same way and get an additional 23 lines. Many modern PBX systems have the capability to handle 2 or more T1 lines on one or more interface cards.

A WISP finds that T1 dedicated Internet service offered enough capacity when they were getting started, but is now getting poky as more and more users sign-up. In this case the answer is to get 2 T1 lines bonded together. Bonding is a standardized way to combine the bandwidth of 2 or more lines so that they behave as one larger line. If you bond 2 T1 lines you get 2x the bandwidth or 3 Mbps. Bonding 4 lines gives you 6 Mbps and 6 lines gives you 12 Mbps.

So why order all these T1 lines instead of just getting a larger service? After all, DS3 will give you 45 Mbps, OC3 provides 155 Mbps, and Carrier Ethernet offers standard speeds of 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps and 1,000 Mbps.

There are good reasons to stick with T1 lines. First of all, you may want a service such as ISDN PRI telephone trunking that requires a TDM based service, not Ethernet. Or, you may want to start small and add bandwidth incrementally as your business grows. Most importantly, outside of major metropolitan areas you may find that it's T1 or nothing. T1 lines are provisioned on standard telephone trunk wiring, which is available just about anywhere. Higher bandwidth DS3, OC3 or Ethernet services may require fiber optic lines that are too expensive to install. That's especially true for wireless backhaul at WISP towers out in the countryside. T1 may be your only affordable solution.

What bandwidth solution is best for your company? It depends highly on where your business is located. Some areas have a wealth of competitive resources available. Others have only a few. The way to find out is to use the GeoQuote (tm) bandwidth search engine and see just what is available and at what cost.

Pair-Bonding Expands Business Bandwidth

AT&T is using a two-prong approach to delivering higher speed digital services, such as U-Verse and faster broadband Internet access. The first is FTTH or Fiber To The Home, a fiber optic link that terminates at the customer premises. The second is FTTC or Fiber To The Curb. With FTTC, the fiber optic cable terminates in a neighborhood junction box and existing copper telephone lines are used to bring the signals the last few hundred to few thousand feet. It is widely expected that AT&T will use pair-bonding to as much as double the delivered bandwidth over copper wires.

Pair-bonding is a technique that bonds, or connects, two pair of unshielded twisted pair copper wire (UTP) so that they behave as one cable with twice the bandwidth. Most homes have two pair already installed from the early days of analog telephony. The second pair is generally used to bring in a second telephone line.

It stands to reason that if pair-bonding will work with DSL signals to residential customers, then it should also work for business lines. Indeed it does. Pair-bonding is a common technique used to increase a T1 point to point or dedicated Internet service connection from 1.5 Mbps to 3 Mbps. But pair bonding doesn't have to stop there. You can bond 3 T1 lines together for 4.5 Mbps, 4 T1s give you 6 Mbps, and so on up to 10 or 12 Mbps as a practical limit. These higher order options are often available, since businesses are generally wired with many more copper pairs than residences.

So why not just go with FTTP or Fiber To The Premises for business locations instead of bonding pairs of copper. Can't you get even higher bandwidths that way? That's usually the case. Ethernet over fiber generally starts at 10 Mbps. Fast Ethernet at 100 Mbps is more common. Gigabit Ethernet is often available using the same fiber connection.

The reason to chose one technology over the other is availability. Fiber optic connections are widely available in major downtown metropolitan areas with many large office buildings. As you get farther afield, fiber availability diminishes. The cost of trenching new fiber has to be justified by a large number of potential customers in the area. If your building is lit for Ethernet, or one nearby is, Ethernet over fiber optic cable is likely to be your lowest cost per Mbps solution.

Even if fiber hasn't made it to your business park or smaller downtown area, it's comforting to know that it is possible to expand your business bandwidth by using pair-bonded T1 lines. T1 services is available most everywhere you'd locate a business. Find out how much bandwidth is available to your business location so you can meet your business expansion needs.