Can You Afford a Slow Internet Connection?

By: John Shepler

Time is money. In business, that’s almost always true. Your expenses for labor, facilities and services keep draining the cash register. You need to refill it faster than it is draining or you’ll be out of the game at some point. Things need to keep moving at a steady clip just to make your nut each month. On top of that, customer satisfaction often depends on how fast you can service them. What’s the last thing you need? A process that slows you down!

Where are the Bottlenecks?
Most businesses have at least some online presence and many have their business processes inextricably connected with software running on remote or cloud servers. That means that no matter how much you scurry about in the office or shop, you may be inherently limited by computer processing a thousand miles away and the connections to them.

Let’s assume for the moment that your data center has all the resources needed to process any requests instantly. With elastic computing you don’t even have to worry about peaks and dips in traffic. The system automatically assigns whatever computing hardware and software are required to keep up with the necessary tasks. Let’s also assume that the data center has as much Internet bandwidth as needed to handle all the incoming and outgoing traffic. That's more than likely as major carriers tend to have points of presence with massive bandwidth located within key data centers.

So, where might things slow down? The Internet itself is vulnerable. It is designed to work around traffic jams to keep things moving. Even so, there are times when too many things go wrong and the entire network drags. Far more often, the problem is not within the backbone of the Internet but with your connection to it. This is referred to as the last-mile connection.

Unclogging the Last Mile
Last mile problems tend to be caused by limited bandwidth, congestion from too many users needing that bandwidth at the same time, latency from long paths and repeated transmissions to get the packets through intermittent connections.

Bandwidth is the easiest to address. If you are still stuck with aging T1 lines or DSL you likely don’t have near enough bandwidth to handle modern Web traffic. In the dial-up days, a Megabit per second was considered broadband. Today that’s more like a Gigabit per second. Smaller users may get by with fractional Gbps, but large operations may be needing 10 Gbps or even 100 Gbps to keep traffic streams from interfering with each other.

Fortunately, fiber optic bandwidth is more the norm than the exception now. If you have a 1 Gbps or 10 Gbps port installed, you should have the bandwidth you need unless your requirements are extraordinary.

Fiber bandwidth also tends to be low in latency. That’s important to responsiveness because when you have enough bandwidth latency will make communication sluggish and adding more bandwidth won’t help. Low latency is especially important in real-time processes including phone calls and video conferencing. You want those communications channels to be full duplex or instantly two-way all the time.

A fiber connection is the gold standard in the office, but you may also need high performance while portable or mobile. That’s where 5G rises to meet the challenge. You likely have this on your smartphone. Other devices can also have built-in 5G or connect through a portable hotspot that is essentially a 5G phone without the user interfaces or apps. It simply converts 5G bandwidth to WiFi. Any WiFi compatible device can then access the Internet.

Private Lines offer Superior Performance
One limitation to the most readily available Internet connections, such as cable and 5G broadband, is that they are a shared resource. The price is kept low by sharing the cable or radio channels with many users at the same time. When things are going well, you don’t even know there is anybody else on the line. But when everybody wants to send huge files are download video simultaneously, you’ll definitely feel the speed bumps.

If the loss in productivity due to varying congestion is a problem, consider a direct private line from your location to your cloud service provider. This bypasses the Internet completely and is available only to your organization. This service is sometimes called “direct access.” You may also want private lines among your facilities and even key suppliers and customers. In essence, you create your own private Internet.

An alternative that can enhance performance and improve reliability of your connection is called SD-WAN. This involves having two or more Internet connections with a special router that prioritizes traffic and selects which path offers the best performance at the time. The SD means software defined, which is the intelligence in the router that monitors your connections and makes instant decisions on how to best route traffic.

Is your business struggling to keep up because your Internet connection isn’t responsive enough? Look into better alternatives for faster, more reliable connectivity to boost productivity and ensure customer satisfaction.

Is 10 Gbps Internet the New Business Standard?

By: John Shepler

Internet bandwidths have been creeping up since the introduction of broadband more than two decades ago. Just when you think you have enough, you find that response from websites and cloud applications is too sluggish for you to maintain maximum productivity. It’s time for another upgrade, but that isn’t such a bad thing these days… if you do it right.

Why the Need for So Much Bandwidth?
What’s driving the need for ever increasing bandwidth is more data hungry applications. While the original Internet was most text-based, the next move was to images and then database operations. The introduction of video really started to suck up Mbps and Gbps as fast as they could be provided.

Now it is enormous file transfers, high definition video, including video conferencing, and the relocation of business critical applications from the server room to the cloud. Add e-commerce to that mix and you have a screaming demand for high speed low latency bandwidth.

The Changing Nature of WAN Bandwidth
The telecommunications world was founded on copper and wireless. Wireless persists in an evolved form, but copper is on the way out. Well, twisted pair copper telecom lines are disappearing fast. Coaxial cable copper has a new lease on life with DOCSIS 3.1 and 4.0 that are enabling it to compete with fiber. Wireless, too, can compete with fiber using 5G and, soon, 6G technology in the microwave range.

The big daddy of telecom is fiber. You can see fiber being trenched into nearly every right of way in cities and even smaller towns. Fiber goes under water to link continents. The Internet IS fiber, even if your access isn’t.

Fiber today isn’t the same fiber as yesterday. Oh, it’s still glass fibers fed by lasers. What’s different is the protocols. The telephone-centric SONET has given way to Ethernet over Fiber that is directly compatible with the Ethernet on your LAN. Packet switched networks have taken over from circuit switched networks.

The Good News About Bandwidth
The thought of ever accelerating bandwidth needs could give you pause except for one counter factor. The cost of that bandwidth is decreasing almost as fast as the speeds are increasing. You can get gigabit level fiber or cable broadband for what you used to pay for a T1 line. It is rapidly becoming possible for residential users to get gigabit level bandwidth over cable and PON (passive optical network) fiber. Wireless speeds in the hundreds of Mbps are also getting common. Any of these services may also serve smaller businesses well.

The next step up is in the multi-gig speed range, with 10 Gbps a new standard. It works well for businesses with many employees online, hospital and medical centers needing to transmit medical images, automated factories, video production and so on. If you already have Gigabit Internet or GigE service and are running into congestion, a 10 Gbps fiber line may be the perfect solution. For very high volume operations, even 100 Gbps isn’t unreasonable and is becoming more commonly available.

All Bandwidth Isn’t the Same
So far we’ve been talking about the Internet, the ultimate public commons. It’s a shared network by its very nature. Even so, most users with enough bandwidth find it works well for their purposes.

Internet access is also generally shared. Cable and cellular wireless are multi-user services without any priority or guarantee of latency. Because they are shared, these are the most affordable options.

The next step up is called Direct Internet Access or DIA. It’s a private line from your location to the Internet connection at your service provider. Being private means that you aren’t competing with dozens of other local companies or consumers for bandwidth, which can become scarce at times. The wireless equivalent of DIA is called 5G slicing.

Still need higher performance? Skip the Internet for a private lane all the way from your company to your cloud provider. Direct connection, another name for a private line, completely eliminates competition from other users to give you the best consistent performance. A 10 Gig Ethernet fiber private line is a premium service that may well fit your budget if you need to have the cloud behave like the servers down the hall.

Are you ready for 10 Gbps Internet or private line service? Don’t say no until you’ve checked prices for 10 GigE and higher business bandwidth. If 10 Gig is too much right now, you may opt for a fraction of that with the option to upgrade later. If 100 Gbps makes sense, large organizations may also find that within their means.

Dedicated Symmetric Internet Connections

By: John Shepler

Are you frustrated with the performance of the Internet for business use? Are you inclined to think that the entire thing is really more intended for entertainment and casual browsing that actually getting work done in a timely fashion? Yet, there’s really no alternative. Your customers and suppliers and all the information you need is online. Even your software packages and communications may be on the cloud now. Perhaps all you really need is a higher performance broadband connection that is more suited to the workplace.

What’s Wrong With My Internet Service?
Chances are that your Internet Service Provider is delivering the service you ordered exactly as advertised.There is nothing really wrong with it. It’s just that the particular connection you are using is not up to the job. That’s especially true if you are making demands beyond what the typical Internet user expects. Some of the key parameters you need to be aware of include bandwidth, symmetry, dedication, latency, jitter, and packet loss. Let’s take those one at a time and see why they make a difference.

Bandwidth
Do fire fighters try to put out a blazing building with a garden hose? Of course not. A small pipe can’t deliver the huge volume of water needed. Same with bandwidth. A small or low bandwidth connection might keep up with emails, credit card verification, casual browsing and some video streaming. it can’t keep a dozen, a hundred or a thousand employees working efficiently. Once the “pipe” (yes, it’s actually called that) is at capacity you experience congestion. Too many packets per unit of time. Somebody has to wait their turn… and wait, and wait and wait.

You need bandwidth appropriate to the job. That means you’ll have to kiss DSL goodbye. T1 lines are reliable but way too slow these days. Same for budget cable broadband, 3G or even 4G wireless. Move up to fiber optic service if you can possibly get it without too much construction cost. Otherwise, Ethernet over Copper may work. Depending on the application, you might get by with 100 Mbps to 1000 Gbps DOCSIS cable.

Symmetry
Not all broadband is the same by a long shot. One big difference is symmetry of upload and download bandwidth. Symmetry means how much alike they are. Cable, satellite, DSL and similar connections that primarily serve the consumer market are not symmetrical. They are called asymmetrical. You may get 100 Mbps in the download direction but only 10 Mbps in the upload direction.

What difference does it make? Consumers don’t care. They mostly download. Businesses transfer large files between locations and upload them to remote web servers. Enterprise software packages transfer data in both directions. Offsite backups are primarily in the upload direction. If you can watch videos easily but can’t backup your files, you’ve got a symmetry problem.

Dedication
We’re all dedicated to the job, right? That’s not what this is about. The two choices in bandwidth are dedicated and shared. Once again, those low cost broadband services are actually shared bandwidth. You and a dozen or a hundred other customers are all drinking from the same pipe. When everybody wants service at the same time, there isn’t enough to go around and things slow down. It’s really bad when they slow down during business hours and worse when you are working to a deadline.

Dedicated bandwidth services are yours and yours alone. Don’t get me wrong. The Internet backbones themselves are always shared. That’s not where the problem usually is. The real pinch point is that last mile between you and your service provider. You want that to be a dedicated connection if you expect consistency high performance.

Latency
Latency is a time delay. It’s a pause. Every circuit has latency. Even your local area network has some. The trick is to keep the latency so low you don’t notice it. What adds latency? Long distance connections with lots of equipment on the line. The worst is geostationary satellites. No matter what you do, there’s a half-second or more of time delay between action and response. Ten milliseconds of latency likely won’t hurt anybody. A hundred milliseconds will probably be noticeable. Half a second to a second? Maddening. Real time services such as VoIP telephone and video conferencing will be the most affected. If you need to use a satellite, be prepared to pause to let the other person speak or you’ll talk all over each other.

Jitter and Packet Loss
Jitter is a variation in arrival between packets. It’s another congestion problem. Jitter distorts conversations. Worse is packet loss. That means some packets get sent and never received. Data transfer protocols will simply request a resend. Voice and video will have holes in the stream that add more distortion. If packet loss is too bad due to a nearly unusable connection, even website performance and data backups will slow to a crawl.

Dedicated Symmetric Internet Connections
The gold standard in professional grade business Internet service is dedicated symmetric lines. Even better are dedicated symmetric lines that go directly from location to location, like branch offices or to a cloud service, and avoid the Internet altogether. If you are going to use the Internet, though, give yourself the best performance possible. Insist on a dedicated symmetric Internet access, preferably with a service level agreement. Plan on paying considerably more than you will for a budget connection, but consider it worth the price in productivity and better customer relations.

Your Options For Business Internet Broadband

By: John Shepler

The range of broadband Internet connectivity solutions available for your business location is greater than ever before. Let’s take a look at what’s available and appropriate for companies of all sizes.

Starting at the Top
We’ll start at the top, since Gigabit Internet is the gold standard that everyone would really like to have… if they could afford it. Chances are, you probably can if you have a medium or larger size company in most locations or smaller businesses in select areas.

Where You Are Counts
This is an important point for all connectivity services. What you get and what you pay for it depends a lot on your particular business location. That’s because not all areas are built out equally. Major metro downtowns have a wealth of services and are highly competitive on price. Large business and office parks are also well connected. In smaller towns or out in rural areas, pickings are slim, as they say. Even so, you can get some form of broadband Internet connection no matter where you are.

Options at 1 Gbps
The most popular form of Gigabit Ethernet or GigE service for business right now is Gigabit Ethernet over Fiber. It is a more modern technology than SONET and excels in both ease of connectivity and price. The ease of connectivity comes from the fact that Carrier Ethernet is really just an extension of the same switched Ethernet that runs on your company LAN. Features necessary to long distance operation and maintenance have been added to the Ethernet standard. Otherwise it’s the same packets you already know and love.

Gigabit Ethernet is priced at a fraction of what traditional SONET OC3, OC12, OC48 etc costs. These are still viable options and are embedded into many, many regional and national networks. Ethernet can run over SONET or be natively hosted on the fiber. Competitive providers have pushed prices lower and lower, to the point that if you really need this much bandwidth you can probably afford it.

Another advantage of Carrier Ethernet is that it is easily scalable. You can install fiber services with a Gigabit speed port today but only take 100 Mbps service if that is all you need. The price will be considerably less and you can upgrade to 200, 500, 750 or 1,000 Mbps whenever you like. No equipment changes will be needed.

Even Higher Speeds
The relentless migration of data centers to the cloud and higher performance hosted business applications have pushed demands on WAN networks to higher and higher speeds. While most companies are getting used to the idea of having Gigabit connectivity, some, like video producers and larger medical complexes, find that bandwidth a bit limiting. No problem. If you can get Ethernet over Fiber, you can likely get 10 Gbps as easily as 1 Gbps. In larger markets, 100 Gbps is readily available for business use.

Fractional Gigabit Options
If your needs are more modest, say in the range of 50 to 500 Mbps, you have multiple options for service. Certainly, rate limited GigE can work in this range. You can also opt for traditional DS3 service at 45 Mbps. This bandwidth, which once was a corporate standard, is provisioned on copper coaxial cables. Most of the delivery is done over fiber, however, running as a service on OC3 fiber to the curb.

How about business cable broadband? The price is certainly right and you can easily get bandwidths to 100 Mbps, and often 300 Mbps. In some areas Gigabit service over cable is available. Limitations of this service are that the bandwidth is shared, and thus varies during the day. It is also asymmetrical with download speed 10x that of upload speed. Finally, there are usually no service level agreements. Its a best effort service. Even so, if the cable runs by your location and the service will meet your needs, you’ll pay only a fraction of what equivalent fiber bandwidth costs.

The Low End
Small businesses may find 50 Mbps more than they need, especially if the Internet is used primarily for email, purchasing, web browsing and similar applications. In this case, cable broadband at 30 Mbps can be your lowest cost option. Ethernet over Copper will give you symmetrical bandwidth from 5 to 50 Mbps and is also very cost effective.

Have you considered a T1 line? Yes, the bandwidth is only 1.5 Mbps, but it is rock solid and suitable for things like credit card verification and email. Not so much for video or other demanding applications. The beauty of T1 lines is that they have been around so long they are available just about everywhere you can get landline telephone service. That means out in rural areas where just about nothing else is available.

Business satellite broadband is another option for just about any location where power is available and you have a clear view of the Southern sky. The downsides of satellite are that usage is limited to a fixed number of GB per month, just like cellular, and the latency from the satellite being so far up make applications slow to respond and telephone calls more like two-way radio conversations.

How About SDN?
Software Defined Networks are taking the industry by storm. These are collections of similar or dissimilar broadband services that are managed by a special controller that makes instant decisions about which path each packet should take. The effect is that your WAN connection becomes more robust and even lower cost options can be integrated to create a high performing network.

Which business Internet option is right for your business? Get quote for multiple business Internet broadband services and see which fits best to your requirements.

High Speed Business Internet

By: John Shepler

Broadband for business has many more options available than residential broadband. Conventional wisdom is that businesses pay dearly for their high speed Internet. It’s true that some telecom options are more costly, even much more costly than consumer services… for good reasons. But other options are priced in the same ballpark as residential broadband and perfect for certain applications. Let’s take a look at the range of high speed business Internet services available for your location and how to choose.

Business Cable Broadband
At the low end of the price spectrum is cable based broadband Internet. Technically, this is known as DOCSIS 3.0 or D3. Yes, it is delivered on the same coaxial cable that brings in Cable TV. That’s an advantage for certain businesses, like bars and doctor’s waiting rooms. You can get a bundle of broadband and TV, or a “triple play” of broadband, TV and telephone on one line.

Pricing is very attractive because of the huge number of subscribers on the cable. That is also a limitation. You and dozens or hundreds of other users are sharing a pool of bandwidth. When the provider says you get “up to” a certain bandwidth, that is the maximum you’ll see. When lots of other subscribers are online and downloading video or other large files, the line speed for everyone slows down accordingly.

Another reason prices are so low is that cable broadband is not regulated the same way as legacy telecom services. It is considered an “information service” with delivery on a “best effort” basis. Telecom services have SLAs (Service Level Agreements) that spell out performance characteristics and time to response and repair outages.

How do you know if business cable broadband is right for you? For small businesses, especially those who can take advantage of the bundled options, cable is budget friendly. If you have experience with cable broadband at home and are satisfied with the performance and reliability, you’ll likely be happy with the business version as well.

Wireless Broadband
Sometimes you don’t want or need wires at all. 3G and even 4G cellular broadband is available for most business locations. Without the wires, you can be mobile with your smartphone, tablet or laptop computer. A high performance fixed transceiver works great for “pop up” stores or construction sites that only need temporary service.

The limitations of wireless broadband tends to be the limited bandwidth available. Even if you have all the speed you need for your applications, you have a monthly download quota of 5 GB, 10 GB or some number. For things like credit card verification, email and occasional Web access, this may not be a problem. It isn’t a good match for many employees, considerable video downloads or software updates.

Satellite is a fixed wireless service separate from cell towers. It works anywhere you can mount a small dish and have a clear view of the southern sky. Like cellular broadband, satellite is bandwidth limited and not suitable for heavy use. It also suffers from high latency, or time delay, that make it difficult to use for real time applications like VoIP and video conferencing.

T1 lines
T1 is the classic broadband line for businesses. It offers rock solid bandwidth that is equal in both the upload and download directions. Shared bandwidth services, like cable and wireless, offer much higher download that upload speeds. T1 is dedicated to your use and not shared with other companies. It offers low latency and high reliability.

The main limitation of T1 is the bandwidth. It’s 1.5 Mbps. That used to be plenty and still is for smaller applications. You can increase this from 3 to 12 Mbps by adding more T1 lines. This is called “bonded T1.” Each line has a certain cost, so it can get pricey fast.

T1 and bonded T1 offer the professional grade performance you need for nearly everything you want to do, including cloud services and secure point to point connections. It’s also available just about anywhere you can get a conventional telephone line.

DS3 or T3
The legacy upgrade path from T1 is called T3, also known as DS3 (not to be confused with cable D3). Bandwidth increases from 1.5 Mbps to 45 Mbps. That is generally enough for most small to medium size businesses. Like T1, DS3 is highly reliable with low latency, jitter and packet loss. It can be set up as a direct point to point line service as well as Internet access.

The two limitations of DS3 are the relatively high cost compared with other options and availability. The DS3 connection is a pair of coaxial copper cables, but fiber optic lines carry the signal most of the way. That means that fiber needs to be nearby for DS3 to be an option.

Ethernet over Copper
Ethernet over Copper or EoC is a direct competitor to T1. EoC uses the same twisted pair copper wires employed by T1. Multiple pairs are bonded to increase bandwidth. What EoC offers is a direct Ethernet connection to your network plus bandwidth options from 3 to 20 Mbps, even up to 50 or 100 Mbps in some locations.

Ethernet over Copper is widely available and the cost per Mbps tends to be much lower than T1 or DS3. The limitation is that you need to be located near the telco office to get the higher bandwidths. Unlike T1, EoC bandwidth rapidly decreases with distance. However, when available, Ethernet over Copper is an excellent choice for business broadband.

Ethernet over Fiber
Like EoC, EoF or Ethernet over Fiber gives you a high performance broadband service at an excellent price. As you might guess, moving from copper to fiber makes higher bandwidths available. Ethernet over Fiber bandwidth options start at 10 Mbps and go up to 100 Mbps, 1000 Mbps and 10 Gbps. In some locations you can now get 100 Gbps bandwidth if you need this service level.

Fiber has the advantage of being “future proof.” Once installed, chances are that you’ll never need further line construction. Ethernet (as opposed to legacy SONET fiber) is highly scalable. That means you can start off paying for the bandwidth you need today and then upgrade to higher levels with a simple phone call to your provider. Usually no equipment changes will be needed and you can get the increase immediately or within a short time frame compared to upgrading other services.

What broadband option is best for your business? It comes down to cost vs performance along with availability. Get the complete picture on the options for your location with competitive quotes for high speed business Internet services.

Ethernet over Copper FAQ

Business bandwidth options have increased dramatically over the last few years. One new technology that is rapidly gaining popularity is Ethernet over Copper or EoC. Before you sign a contract or renew an existing one for the connectivity you have now, see if these FAQs pique your interest in this newer bandwidth service.

Q: What is Ethernet over Copper service?

A: Ethernet over Copper is a digital line service that transmits Ethernet network signals over twisted pair telecom cabling. It essentially transports your LAN traffic over metropolitan and wide area networks.

Q: How does EoC relate to T1 line service?

A: Both EoC and T1 use the same twisted pair telephone cable installed by the incumbent local telephone company. The modulation technology for EoC is different from what is used for T1, so the performance of the line services each have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Q: Why would you order Ethernet over Copper instead of T1?

A: The advantages of EoC include higher available bandwidth at lower cost that equivalent T1 line services and easy scalability. There are also Ethernet services available that T1 doesn’t support.

Q: Does T1 still make sense in light of EoC?

A: T1 has the advantages of nearly unlimited availability and a locked-in line speed that isn’t related to how far you are from the telco office. You can get T1 line service in rural areas where Ethernet over Copper does not yet reach. A special type of T1 line called ISDN PRI is popular for PBX telephone trunking. EoC is has no direct equivalent.

Q: What bandwidth levels are available with Ethernet over Copper?

A: Entry level service is typically 2 or 3 Mbps, compared with 1.5 Mbps for T1 lines. Just about any increment in service level is available. Popular bandwidths are 3, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25 and 30 Mbps. In some cases, you can get as much as 50 or 100 Mbps over copper.

Q: Does this mean that EoC can replace fiber?

A: EoC and be a viable alternative to fiber optic service in the lower speeds that fiber operates. Some companies don’t need the full fiber bandwidth of OC3 at 155 Mbps or even DS3 (a fiber/copper hybrid) at 45 Mbps. For these applications, 10 or 20 Mbps may be fast enough and offer a considerable cost savings.

Q: How do you connect to EoC service?

A: The service provider will install a piece of CPE or Customer Premises Equipment at your location. This device will have an Ethernet port that is similar to what you find on any other piece of network equipment. You just plug it in to your edge router or switch and you’ll have connectivity.

Q: What is meant by easy scalability?

A: Traditional telecom services are designed for very specific bandwidths that aren’t easily changed. If you upgrade service, that means a “truck roll” to install a new interface and possibly a long wait while the carrier make the network changes necessary to support a higher bandwidth to your location. The Ethernet over Copper CPE has an Ethernet port with a maximum speed, typically 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps. As long as you don’t need more than the maximum bandwidth supported, you can change to a higher or lower speed service in a matter of hours or days, rather than weeks or months.

Does EoC sound like a service that might work for your business connectivity needs? If so, find out what Ethernet over Copper bandwidths and costs are available for your location.


You may also be interested in reading Ethernet over Copper FAQ (Part 2) and Ethernet over Copper FAQ (Part 3).

100 x 100 Mbps Business Bandwidth Options

Bandwidth levels of 100 Mbps are no longer a luxury for many businesses. You need that much to backup files remotely, access cloud applications, distribute content and share large files such as high resolution medical images. Traditional bandwidth services like T1 lines or DS3 connections don’t come close to meeting this requirement. What does and can you afford it?

The traditional service that supports this capacity is OC-3 SONET fiber optic bandwidth. Larger companies have used OC-3 for decades. What’s limited the number of companies that install this service has been high costs, at least in past years.

If you haven’t checked prices in a decade or even the last few years, you’re in for a pleasant surprise. OC-3 prices have plunged from the astronomical levels of years ago to something well within reason today. Medium size businesses and medical organizations, and many smaller high tech businesses where high bandwidth is essential, can now afford OC-3 bandwidth... but should they?

Besides the cost reductions for telecom services, something else has happened recently to give businesses options for 100 Mbps bandwidth. It’s the rise of competitive technology. Decades ago, it was OC-3 or nothing at all. Today, that is just one of several services that can get the job done. Let’s take a look at what else is available.

The biggest competition to SONET fiber optic services is now Ethernet over Fiber. The fiber optic pipes are the same. The signal that they are transporting is different. For you as a business owner or IT manager this makes no difference in the end. Both SONET and Ethernet technologies can carry the same traffic from place to place or to and from the Internet. However Ethernet has some advantages you should know about.

The most important is cost. Much of this is due to competition and some to the way networks are constructed. SONET is a telephone company developed technology. There is almost always a telephone company involved in delivering SONET. It might be for the entire span. Often, the last mile is handled by the local telco and the rest is provided by a competitive carrier.

Ethernet is different. Ethernet came out of the computer industry. It had nothing to do with telephones. In fact, Ethernet really gained prominence as a LAN, not a telecom, technology. It still forms the basis of nearly every installed local network. While the traditional local and long distance telephone companies have added Ethernet to their portfolios, other carriers have started up to gain share in this marketplace. Many built their networks around delivering Ethernet services and don’t even offer SONET.

One thing that’s different about Ethernet over Fiber is that the competitive carrier may handle service throughout the entire network. That includes the connection into your building. Multi-tenant office buildings are especially attractive because there is more than one customer to make it worthwhile to construct the fiber drop and termination equipment. Competitive carriers are aggressive about finding and connecting business locations before someone beats them to it. This helps to hold down prices for everyone in the industry... to your advantage.

Another approach to bandwidth delivery is to eliminate the wires altogether. That’s the domain of the microwave wireless companies. If you are in the right location, you may be able to get 100 Mbps bandwidth over a radio beam to a small antenna on your rooftop.

What’s the right location? It’s almost always in the downtown business district of a major metropolitan area. The microwave transmissions are strictly line of sight and limited in distance to a few kilometers. This means that there needs to be nothing but air between your building and the provider’s tower. For financial services companies, corporation headquarters and other downtown locations, this may be no problem at all. If so, you may be able to get the bandwidth you need installed very rapidly with little or no construction cost.

All of these services are also known as symmetrical dedicated bandwidth. OC-3 is actually 155 Mbps. Fast Ethernet is 100 Mbps with many other service levels available. The symmetrical part means that the upload and download speeds are the same. 100 x 100 Mbps means 100 Mbps upload and 100 Mbps download. Dedicated means that the bandwidth is constructed for your use only. Whatever you don’t use sits idle until you do.

Some companies don’t need this level of performance, especially if all they want to do is access the Internet the way you would at home. These companies can save even more money by going with an asymmetrical shared bandwidth service. As example would be a coaxial cable connection that offers up to 100 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload speeds. Your actual speed at any given time depends on what other users are doing because the bandwidth is in a pool shared by multiple subscribers.

Are you feeling pressed for increased bandwidth but concerned about price and availability? You may have more options than you suspect. Get prices and availability for high bandwidth providers that service your business location.

Fiber Optic Service FAQ, Part 3

Here are more frequently asked questions and answers about fiber optic service for your business You may also be interested in the first and second lists of fiber FAQs.

Q: What is a lit building?

A: This is a building that already has fiber installed and “lit” for service. Usually only a single carrier lights each building. If your building is lit, you can easily get bandwidth services from that carrier.

Q: What are wavelength services?

A: A wavelength or Lambda is a particular color of laser light that carries the signal through the optical fiber. Early fiber systems used only a single light beam. Today, multiple beams travel the same fiber strand using a process called WDM or Wavelength Division Multiplexing. You can lease an entire wavelength for your exclusive use if you wish.

Q: Why would you lease a wavelength rather than just buying bandwidth?

A: Leasing a wavelength gives you high bandwidth dedicated to your use. Typically each wavelength supports 10 Gbps. You can decide whether to use SONET, Ethernet or some other protocol over the wavelength because the service does not share traffic with other users.

Q: What is dark fiber?

A: This refers to fiber strands that have been installed but not lit for service. Most fiber optic cable has dozens or hundreds of fiber strands all bundled together. Carriers that have extra strands they aren’t using will often lease them to other carriers or businesses that need the capacity.

Q: What’s the advantage of dark fiber?

A: Bandwidth is nearly unlimited and security is high because there is no traffic on the fiber strand other that what you provide.

Q: What protocols does dark fiber support?

A: Anything you can generate, including SONET, Ethernet, Fibre Channel and others. By using Wavelength Division Multiplexing, you can assign a different protocol to each wavelength and they won’t interact.

Q: Why wouldn’t you select dark fiber?

A: You’ll need to provide the termination equipment at each end, which can be rather expensive. On wavelength and other bandwidth services the carrier does this. Also, there may not be any dark fiber available on the route you have in mind.

Q: How does fiber support cloud services?

A: Cloud communications are bandwidth intensive. All the traffic that used to run to your in-house data center now goes over a WAN (Wide Area Network) connection to the cloud. You need high bandwidth and low latency connections for this to work properly, just what fiber is good at.

Is fiber bandwidth service the right solution to your business needs? Compare costs and service options for the fiber optic service options available for your business locations.


You may also be interested in reading Fiber Optic Service FAQs, Part 1 and Part 2.

Fiber Optic Service FAQ, Part 2

Here are some more frequently asked questions and answers about fiber optic service for your business You may also be interested in the first list of fiber FAQs.

Q: What types of services are available over Ethernet fiber?

A: The Metro Ethernet Forum has standardized three popular services that are of interest to business users. Ethernet Private Line or E-Line is a dedicated point to point connection between two business locations or from your location to the Internet. Ethernet LAN or E-LAN provides a meshed network service that interconnects multiple locations. Ethernet Tree or E-Tree is a one to many connection popular with companies that distribute content to many subscribers.

Q: How do you connect multiple location LANs together

A: E-Line and E-LAN can do this easily. E-Line is appropriate for two locations to connect as a single bridged network. E-LAN makes sense for 3 or more locations, even those located internationally. E-LAN can make many separate LANs work like they are one larger network.

Q: What is Ethernet over SONET?

A: Most Ethernet providers offer a “native” Ethernet that powers their entire network. If you are in a location that can only get SONET, some carriers offer Ethernet that runs over the SONET fiber. From your prospective, this is the same as any other Ethernet over Fiber.

Q: Can Ethernet carriers interconnect?

A: Yes. The equipment that does this is called E-NNI or Ethernet Network to Network Interface. It allows service providers to seamlessly transfer network traffic back and forth. This allows both carriers to expand their service footprints to wider geographical areas.

Q: What are low latency fiber routes?

A: Most fiber networks strive to minimize latency or time delay between locations. Those advertised specifically as low latency routes are specially engineered to minimize the fiber route length using the straightest path available. They also minimize equipment along the route that can introduce additional latency. Low latency fiber services are in big demand for financial companies that deal in high speed trading.

Q: What is Metro Ethernet?

A: Metro Ethernet or MetroE is a fiber optic network that connects business and other locations within a limited geographic region, usually a single city or metropolitan area consisting of city and suburbs. MetroE connections can also connect to other locations nationally or worldwide.

Q: Does Ethernet support telephone service?

A: Ethernet is a great choice for enterprise VoIP phone service. A specialized service known as SIP Trunking connects your networked telephones or IP PBX to a distant service provider. The higher the bandwidth, the more simultaneous conversations can be supported. Traditional analog phones are better supported with analog phone lines or ISDN PRI service over T1 lines.

Q: Is Ethernet over Fiber distance limited like Ethernet over Copper?

A: No. Fiber offers unlimited transmission distance at any speed you wish. Most service providers have regional networks that serve multiple states or offer nationwide service. Some carriers connect worldwide using undersea cable between continents.

Are you interested in what fiber optic bandwidth service can do for your business? If so, get get instant online pricing up to 1 Gbps and complementary consultation with a bandwidth expert if you wish.


You may also be interested in reading Fiber Optic Service FAQs, Part 1 and Part 3.

Fiber Optic Service FAQ

Fiber optic service is rapidly taking over connections that used to be handled by twisted copper pair. Before you renew your bandwidth contract or order new service of any type, see if these FAQs help you choose the most appropriate option for your business.

Q: Why choose fiber over copper service?

A: Bandwidth requirements have escalated in recent years. At the same time fiber pricing has been dropping dramatically. You may well find higher bandwidth available over fiber than you can get with copper lines and for a comparable price.

Q: What bandwidth levels are typically available.

A. Fiber optic service for business locations ranges from 10 Mbps on up to 10 Gbps. Copper options are readily available from 1.5 Mbps to 10 Mbps and sometimes available up to 50 or 100 Mbps. It all depends on how far you are located from the telco office where your copper cable terminates.

Q: Isn’t fiber service hard to get and expensive to install?

A: Not so much anymore. Competitive carriers are rapidly expanding their service footprints and looking to add customers, especially in multi-tenant office buildings. There may well be fiber located nearby that would cost little or nothing to install. In rural areas, that’s not as likely other than for cellular towers where fiber bandwidth is becoming a requirement to support 4G LTE.

Q: What’s the difference between SONET and Ethernet over Fiber?

A: They are two technologies that both use optical fibers for transport. SONET is an older standard developed by the telephone companies. You connect to a provider’s edge router or a specialized interface module for your own router. Ethernet over Fiber (EoF) uses the standard Ethernet protocol extended for long haul transport and carrier operations. EoF is a fairly recent development that is expanding rapidly worldwide. Ethernet pricing is generally much less than equivalent SONET service if it is available.

Q: What SONET service levels are available?

A: There are discrete OC or Optical Carrier service levels that include OC-3 at 155 Mbps, OC-12 at 622 Mbps, OC-24 at 1.2 Gbps, OC-48 at 2.4 Gbps, OC-192 at 10 Gbps and, rarely, OC-768 at 40 Gbps.

Q: What Ethernet over Fiber service levels are available?

A: Ethernet was designed to be scalable, so you can get nearly any bandwidth you want in small increments. Popular service levels are 10 Mbps equivalent to standard 10 Mbps LAN Ethernet, 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet, 1 Gbps Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gbps 10 GigE.

Q: How do SONET and Ethernet interfaces differ?

A: SONET uses a specific interface card for each service level. Ethernet installations provide a port with a maximum speed and standard copper or fiber Ethernet jack. For instance, a Gigabit Ethernet port that is typically installed can support any bandwidth from 10 Mbps to 1000 Mbps.

Q: If Ethernet is more scalable and less expensive, why choose SONET?

A: Usually the answer is availability. SONET has been around a lot longer than Ethernet and may already be installed in your building or on lines that run nearby. If you have a specialized application, like high volume channelized telephone trunking, SONET is the logical choice. For dedicated Internet access or point to point private lines, either will do.

Would you like to see what fiber optic service options are available for your business location? If so, get instant online pricing up to 1 Gbps and complementary consultation with a bandwidth expert if you wish.


You may also be interested in reading Fiber Optic Service FAQs, Part 2 and Part 3.

Ethernet over Copper Distance Sensitivity

The availability of Ethernet over Copper (EoC) line service has opened up a suite of new bandwidth levels to businesses not yet connected with fiber optic cabling from their service provider. In additional to breaking the speed barrier imposed by T1 lines, EoC is easily scalable and often the low cost solution for professional bandwidth. So, what’s not to like?

There are a couple of limitations holding back universal adoption of Ethernet over Copper technology. First is that appropriate terminal equipment must be installed at the telco central office (CO) where the other end of your twisted pair copper lines are connected. This is similar to what is used for T1 and DSL, but unique to EoC. Many, but not all, COs are equipped to provide Ethernet service.

The second limitation of Ethernet over Copper is distance. T1 technology was developed by the telephone industry to provide phone line trunking between switching centers. Provisions were made for T1 specific signal regenerators to allow T1 service to stretch just about any distance from the CO. It’s still popular for business broadband in rural areas where nothing else is available. EoC is more like DSL. The bandwidth you can get decreases rapidly with how far away you are from the central office. If the CO is just down the street, you may be able to get bandwidth that rivals entry level fiber optic service. A mile or more away, your choices will be limited. Several miles away, the signal is unusable and service is unavailable.

This distance limitation isn’t a deal breaker for most business. Most locations are within a few thousand feet of the nearest CO. That’s likely the one that connects your wiring. It’s in developed areas at the edge of town or out in the country that EoC service gets dicey.

How much bandwidth are we talking about. You know that a T1 line gives you 1.5 Mbps. Entry level Ethernet over Copper service generally starts at 3 Mbps. You can go lower in some cases, but here’s another advantage of Ethernet. That 3 Mbps will probably cost you the same at your old 1.5 Mbps service. Twice the bandwidth for the same money.

The cost savings are even more dramatic as you go up in bandwidth. Many companies installed bonded T1 lines before the advent of EoC. For instance, you can get that same 3 Mbps bandwidth by bonding two T1 lines so that they act as one larger pipe. This process can be expanded by adding more T1 lines to further increase the available bandwidth. The practical limit is around 8 lines to provide 12 Mbps.

Now, 12 Mbps is as much as many smaller companies need right now. One strategy is to start by bonding two T1 lines to double your throughput. Then add more lines as your bandwidth needs increase. This is preferable to having to pay for more bandwidth than you can make good use of. The one thing to remember is that you need to get all of your T1 lines from the same provider so that they can be bonded on both end of the circuit.

EoC at 10 or 12 Mbps is also fairly easy to obtain at most business locations. Why choose this approach? You know you can cut the cost in half by simply switching to EoC rather than double bonding T1 lines. The cost savings get even more dramatic as bandwidth goes up. A 12 Mbps EoC service might cost you two to three times what you pay for 3 Mbps. The same 12 Mbps obtained from bonded T1 lines might cost as much as 8x as much as a single line. That’s because there is no economy of scale with T1. Each line has a cost associated with it, so you just multiply the number of lines time the price of each line to get your lease price. Some carriers will discount bonded service to make it more attractive. Even so, EoC will almost always be the low cost solution compared to bonded T1.

Just how much bandwidth can you get from Ethernet over Copper technology? You’ll easily get 10 or 12 Mbps. It’s not uncommon for businesses to increase that to 20 or 30 Mbps. The upper limit is generally around 45 to 50 Mbps, and that’s only available for locations near the CO. In some cases, you may be even able to get 100 Mbps or more EoC. That’s about where SONET fiber optic service starts at 155 Mbps.

Has this discussion got you interested in higher bandwidth services for less money? You don’t even have to know how far your CO is from your building or how long the wire run is. There’s a service that will automatically figure this out based on your location and business phone number. You’ll get an instant online price quote that will be pretty accurate even without further information. Go ahead, try the automated GeoQuote Ethernet Bandwidth service and see what you can get and how much it will cost. If you like, you can request support from a product specialist to see if there are any special cost savings deals available right now or discuss the specifics of your needs. Please note that this only works for business addresses and not residential locations.

Why 10 Mbps Ethernet is Replacing T1

There is a big technology shift in progress right now that involves many small to medium size businesses. It involves your broadband and private line WAN connections. The classic T1 line that has served this business market so well for so long is quietly going extinct. Let’s see how that can be and what is replacing those lines.

T1 was the first truly broadband network connection offered to business users. Before T1, you were dealing with dial-up over analog phone lines or fairly low speed digital lines running something like 64 Kbps. What T1 brought to the table was 1.5 Mbps of rock solid symmetrical bandwidth. As a synchronized line, it also supported digital telephony with up to 24 digitized phone conversations per T1 line. In fact, that’s the origin of T1. Bell Labs devised it to support efficiently transporting telephone conversations between switching offices.

The reason that T1 has become so popular is that it is a mature, reliable technology that is nearly universal available. T1 comes into your building on two pair of ordinary phone wire that is installed for multiple business lines. Even today, T1 lines are still being ordered by smaller businesses that need a dependable dedicated Internet or private line service but don’t have high bandwidth demands. Pricing has plunged over the years from well over a grand a month down to something in the range of $200 to $300. You may even find lower prices in highly competitive metropolitan areas.

So if T1 service is so wonderful, why would companies replace it with something else?

The problem is bandwidth. Over the last few decades, business processes and the applications that enable them have become much more sophisticated. Casual Web browsing and online ordering is still done, but now a lot of content is video and “big data” moving over the networks. The last straw is probably the move to cloud-based services. Before the cloud, your network traffic ran on your own LAN between users and servers. Now, all of that traffic has to traverse the WAN network. Only the smallest cloud implementations are satisfied by a mere 1.5 Mbps pipe.

T1 technology does accommodate higher bandwidths through a process known as bonding. Two bonded T1 lines double the available bandwidth to 3 Mbps. Bond four lines together for 6 Mbps. You can continue this expansion up to 10 or 12 Mbps before it becomes impractical.

The real limit to bonding T1 lines is affordability. There is no economy of scale. Each T1 line needs to be individually installed and costs the same. Therefore, you pay double for 2x bonding and quadruple the monthly lease price for 4x bonding with perhaps some small discount for multiple lines.

What’s moved in to replace T1 is a newer technology called Ethernet over Copper or EoC. Ethernet over Copper uses the same telco twisted pairs that support analog telephony and T1 lines. The modulation scheme is more efficient, though, and supports higher line speeds. It’s not at all unusual to get 10, 20 or 30 Mbps over copper lines.

Ethernet over Copper is also priced much lower per Mbps than T1 lines. Typical entry level is 3 Mbps EoC for the same price as a T1 line. That’s double the bandwidth for the same money. Even more attractive is 10 Mbps EoC for 2x to 3x the cost of a T1 line, depending on location.

The 10 Mbps bandwidth service level is becoming the most desirable price point. While you pay more for a10 Mbps EoC connection than a T1 line if both are ordered today, most companies ordered their T1 service years ago. They may have paid more than necessary because they only investigated one or two vendors. The result is that you may well be able to get 10 Mbps Ethernet over Copper for the same lease price as you have been paying for longstanding T1 service. Making the move to EoC can give you the higher bandwidth you need today without having to increase your monthly telecom budget.

Does your company really need more bandwidth to operate efficiently in today’s marketplace? If so, consider trading in your T1 lines for Ethernet over Copper or the higher speed Ethernet over Fiber service. The cost is probably much lower than you expect.

Gigabit Ethernet Port Scales WAN Bandwidth

When you are ready to make the move from copper to fiber bandwidth levels or upgrading an OC-3 SONET service, you are faced with a choice. What level of bandwidth do you install?

Why not give yourself flexibility for the future and the opportunity to pay only for what you need right now? This is what a Ethernet port strategy can do for you.

Scalability is a new idea in business telecom services. When you install a T1 line, it requires a very specific T1 interface that include a CSU/DSU circuit unique to the T1 line specifications. Upgrade to a T3 line (DS3 bandwidth) and you’ll find that you can’t just plug that T3 into your T1 router. The interface is completely different. Even the connecting cable is different. With DS3 you are looking at a pair of coaxial BNC connectors that don’t support any other service. Now, make yet another move on up to OC-3 service. Your router interfaces for T1 and T3 are no good. You need a fiber input to your router.

It doesn’t get any better when you start moving up the fiber optic hierarchy. You can’t just plug OC-12 or OC-48 into an OC-3 port and have everything spring to life. They are different services requiring modifications. You’ll likely need a new interface card and programming changes to your router. If you have a managed router, that probably means a truck roll to your premises to swap out the CPE (Customer Premises Equipment).

In the back of your mind, you must suspect it doesn’t have to be this way. Those new PCs have NICs (Network Interface Cards) labeled 10/100/1000 Mbps. That means that you can plug them into any LAN running at up to 1 Gbps and they’ll work just find. Even the connector takes the same RJ-45 patch cord. Wouldn’t that approach be far superior for WAN connections too?

This is the beauty of Carrier Ethernet, which includes Metro Ethernet, MPLS network access and long haul point to point connections. Ethernet beyond the LAN has been designed to be as flexible as Ethernet on the LAN.

One of Ethernet’s best features as a bandwidth service is ease of scaling. If you are running 50 Mbps service and find your needs have increased so that you now need 100 Mbps, you can just call up your service provider and request an upgrade. In a matter of hours or a day or two at the most, your WAN network speed will double. In that time, no one has knocked on the door with a new router under their arm. In fact, you haven’t seen anyone from the service provider. It was all done over the phone.

There is a trick to making this work. The magic is all in the installed Ethernet port. When you order Ethernet service, make sure that you have a port installed that will support the highest bandwidth you reasonably expect to be ordering down the road. Most ports are the standard Ethernet speeds of 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps and 1,000 Mbps. It’s also possible to get a 10,000 Mbps or 10 GigE port with a suitably fast managed router if your needs are that high.

With Ethernet over Copper, you are probably looking at a 100 Mbps Ethernet port at most. Be sure you know just what your maximum speed will be, because EoC is distance limited and requires more copper pairs as speed increases. Ask what bandwidth your installation will support compared to what you are ordering initially.

With Ethernet over Fiber, it likely makes sense to install a Gigabit Ethernet port. The fiber itself has more capacity that you are ever likely to employ. The speed of the port will be the limiting factor, along with the capability of the carrier’s equipment that feeds that port. Once again, it is smart to plan for the future but buy for today. Get the bandwidth you need now, but be sure that the system is engineered to allow for fast and easy upgrades as you need them. That will be especially handy if you get hit with a sudden increase in traffic or a need to support massive amounts of video or enormous file transfers that you didn’t anticipate.

Are you ready for a bandwidth upgrade, but unsure of what commitment to make? Give yourself some breathing room with a Gigabit Ethernet port and the ability to scale up your bandwidth as needed. Get prices and availability of Ethernet ports and line speeds now.

Business Internet Connection Service

As a business, you need to connect to the Internet to communicate with your customers and to run your own operation. A business Internet connection is more demanding than a consumer Internet service. When your business connection goes down, you can be losing money. If you are an Internet based operation, a dead connection is like a closed store. Reliability as well as cost are key.

A fairly new connection technology called Ethernet Internet offers both cost and reliability advantages. In addition, you may be able to get bandwidth that has been unobtainable at your particular business location. How can you know what’s available? Use this quick Ethernet Internet Finder and see...



Why Ethernet? It’s the most direct connection to your own network. Whether you are running a wired or wireless LAN, chances are that you are using the Ethernet protocol. Most computers and peripherals come with Network Interface Cards that support 10/100 or 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet. That’s the standard RJ-45 network connector. Your router, wired or wireless, no doubt has an RJ-45 input connection. With Ethernet Internet service, you simply connect an Ethernet patch cord from the provider’s port to your router or switch.

Two popular types of Business Ethernet Internet connections are Ethernet over Copper and Ethernet over Fiber. Both are highly reliable and have easily scaled bandwidth. Also, the bandwidth is symmetrical. For instance, 10x10 Mbps Ethernet gives you 10 Mbps in both the upload and download directions. You’ll have the full 10 Mbps at your disposal. This is dedicated bandwidth, rather than the shared bandwidth you get with DSL, Cable or 3G wireless services.

The bandwidths of copper and fiber Ethernet services somewhat overlap. For instance Ethernet over Copper (EoC) is available from 2 Mbps on up to 200 Mbps. Ethernet over Fiber typically starts at 50 Mbps and goes up to 1 Gigabit or even 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

The cost of Ethernet Internet connections is lower than what you’ll find with T1 lines, DS3 bandwidth or SONET fiber optic services. You can typically get twice as much bandwidth for the same money as a T1 line and the difference is even more dramatic at higher bandwidth levels.

Does your business need a higher speed or more reliable Internet connection? If so, check out Ethernet Internet connection services for your location. Note that this service is available for business locations only. Sorry, no residential service available.

Pair Bonding and Distance Determine Ethernet Speed

Ethernet over Copper is coming on strong as a competitor to T1, satellite and fractional T3 (DS3) services. It has considerable advantages, such as lower cost and ease of interface. So, just how much EoC bandwidth can you get and where can you get it?

The magic behind Ethernet over Copper is in re-purposing the same twisted pair copper wires that are used to bring in analog business phone lines and T1 lines. There is a huge advantage in making good use of copper that is already in the ground. The installation of that copper has already been paid for. Companies looking to bring in fiber optic service sometimes get a nasty shock when they see what the construction costs are going to be. The technical capability of that copper is also much higher than many assume.

Believe it or not, some carriers are offering 50 Mbps and even 100 Mbps bandwidth over ordinary twisted pair copper. That is enough to forestall fiber installation until even higher bandwidths are required years from now. Typical EoC offerings range from 2 & 3 Mbps on up to 30 Mbps, with steps of 10 Mbps, 15 Mbps, 20 Mbps and 30 Mbps in-between. The bandwidth is highly scalable, but there are tricks in getting it to work.

Many carriers are using terminal equipment provided by Overture Networks, formerly Hatteras Networks. What this equipment does is generate a highly efficient modulation scheme over multiple copper pair. There are variants for 2, 4 and 8 pair setups. One box is at the telephone company office. The other is installed in your building. The hand-off to your network equipment is a standard RJ-45 Ethernet connection. With this arrangement, the telecom circuit looks just like another network link.

What makes this work is the ability of competitive carriers to rent unbundled local loops from the local phone company, also called the Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier or ILEC. Why the ILEC? It’s because by tradition and by law, the ILECs are the owners of all that telephone wire strung on poles and buried in the ground over the last century or so. Since deregulation, competing companies called CLECs or Competitive Local Exchange Carriers have been able to lease just the wires between the phone company office and the service location. That pair of wires is called the local loop.

For EoC to work, multiple pairs of local loop wiring must be available to the business location in question. What’s really desired is just the plain wires between the switching office and the service location with no signals on the line and no equipment installed in-between. Some lines have what is called pair gain equipment in place. This is analog or digital multiplexing circuitry that allows multiple phone conversations to share one physical phone line. Such circuitry is incompatible with the Ethernet over Copper digital signals.

Fortunately most business locations do have 2, 4, 6 or 8 suitable copper pair available. Now it comes down to distance. EoC offers higher bandwidth than bonded T1 lines, but unlike T1 its technology is distance sensitive. If you are more than 15,000 feet or about 3 miles from the telco office serving your location you are probably out of luck for EoC, although T1 is an option. The closer you are to the office and the more pairs of wires employed, the higher your Ethernet bandwidth.

At about a mile, you can probably get whatever maximum service is available. Between 1 and 3 miles, using 2, 4, 6 or 8 pair, you’ll likely get somewhere between 5 and 30 Mbps maximum bandwidth. Bonded T1 lines can reach further but top out at about 12 Mbps using 8 pair.

Obviously, there is no stock answer to exactly how much Ethernet bandwidth you can get at any particular location. It all depends on what facilities have already been installed by the local phone company and which competitive carriers serve your city. You can find out, though, with little effort on your part. Simply request availability and pricing of Ethernet over Copper services for your business location or locations.

Benefits of a Gigabit Ethernet Network Connection

The need for high bandwidth connectivity has sneaked up on some companies. That T1 line they ordered years ago turned into a DS3 connection and perhaps a move to OC3 fiber optic service. But it still seems like there is a bottleneck. Perhaps it is time to consider a move to GigE or Gigabit Ethernet.

One thing you should know about the other telecom services you’ve ordered over the years is that they are derived from telephone company technology. Yes, they’re reliable. Yes, they work just fine. But they weren’t designed from the ground up to mirror what you are running on your network today. As a consequence, you may have interface issues and you are probably paying a lot more than you would have to for the same connection speed.

The beauty of having Ethernet as your standard protocol both inside and outside of your facility is that there are no connectivity issues. It’s Ethernet all the way. You can use it like you use any other high bandwidth connection to transport voice, video or data packets from point to point. You also have the option to employ your Ethernet connection as a way to link multiple LANs together in one large bridged LAN. It’s a way to connect all your geographically diverse locations as if they were simply on different floors of the same building.

There was a time just a few years ago when Gigabit Ethernet running on a local area networks was as absurd an idea as ordering up a Gigabit Ethernet WAN connection. For one thing, Metro Ethernet and Carrier Ethernet are relatively new services. For another, Gigabit Ethernet was considered a ridiculously large amount of bandwidth.

Nobody laughs at GigE anymore. They don’t even shake their head in disbelief. What they want to know is where they can get Gigabit Ethernet service and how much it will cost them.

The reason for this change of attitude is that computer applications are sucking up bandwidth like it is an infinite resource. It’s the way that microprocessor clock speed just couldn’t get high enough or that RAM memory was always about half what you really needed. Multiple core processors and lower RAM prices have allowed computers to keep up with demanding applications such as video processing. It’s networks that are now under pressure.

You may already be running Gigabit Ethernet on your LAN. Many PCs, peripherals, switches, routers and network appliances come with 10/100/1000 Mbps Network Interface Cards standard. GigE gives you the network throughput you need to efficiently transfer files and run real time simulations and processes without creating time wasting bottlenecks. Now, what about connections that leave your facility?

If you need to transfer medical images or do video production, a Gigabit Ethernet connection may at the low end of what you’ll be needing. If you’ve consolidated data centers and need to access files remotely from a large facility, GigE is no luxury.

Fortunately, Gigabit Ethernet WAN connections are readily available in metropolitan areas. Downtown in major cities you may even have two or more carriers bidding for your business. What’s important is that you have or can easily get a fiber optic connection to your building. GigE is way beyond the capability of copper-based facilities and most wireless services.

Can you get Gigabit Ethernet at a reasonable cost? It’s more affordable than ever and competitive carriers are more inclined to bring in fiber service by aerial line or underground. See if you have fiber facilities already in your area. Check now to find fiber optic services at or near your business location. If it’s on the map, you may be in luck.



Note: Photo of Gigabit Ethernet switch and cables courtesy of J. Smith on Wikimedia Commons.

Is Metro Ethernet Available?

You’re looking to initiate or expand bandwidth for your company. What type of service should you go with? Metro Ethernet is in the news these days. You may have heard that it offers more bandwidth for less money than traditional telecom solutions. But, is Metro Ethernet even available?

There’s a quick way to find out. Use an Ethernet service finder to get a map of the lit buildings near you. What’s a lit building? No, that doesn’t refer to how many lights are on in the offices. It refers to the presence of fiber optic service to that building. Lit means that the service is turned up and active with laser light shining through the fiber. There’s also such a thing as dark fiber, which is just the fiber optic cabling installed but not connected to anything.

Why are lit buildings important? Because those are places where you can get fiber optic service quickly and easily. All the hard work of digging trenches or attaching new fiber cables to utility poles has already been done. It’s just a matter of connecting to an almost limitless supply of bandwidth available through the fiber.

If you are in or can readily move to a lit building you can almost certainly get Metro Ethernet service at an attractive price. You might even decide to share a high bandwidth connection with other tenants to get an even lower price that comes with high volume usage. But what if your building has no fiber optic service yet? Is there any chance you can get Metro E?

There certainly is. If the building next door has fiber coming in, chances are high that you can get the same service. Most of the hard work has been done already in getting fiber strung from the carrier POP (Point of Presence) to the telecom room in the facility. It’s not that big a deal to extend fiber next door. In fact, you may pay little or nothing to get your building lit if you require a reasonable level of bandwidth.

What if there is no fiber anywhere nearby? That’s a little more tricky. It depends on where you are and how much bandwidth you require. You may not realize it, but Ethernet can be delivered on twisted pair copper telco cables as well as fiber. Not every business requires Gbps data pipes. In fact, two of the most popular Metro Ethernet services are 3 Mbps and 10 Mbps. Both of those easily qualify to be brought in on existing copper cable. You can be several miles from the nearest point of presence and still get Ethernet over Copper. Speeds up to 45 Mbps are available, but you’ll need to have a carrier POP much closer for those higher bandwidths.

Is Metro Ethernet available out in the boonies? Probably not. That’s what the “Metro” part implies. Even so, you may be able to get something called EoDS1 or Ethernet over DS1. That services uses T1 lines to bring in Ethernet service. Alternatively, you could simply order a T1 line or multiple bonded T1 lines to meet your bandwidth needs no matter where you are located.

Ready to see if Metro Ethernet is available for you? Simply enter your business address (not for residential locations) in to the Shop For Ethernet WAN Search box and have a look at the map results. You’ll see just how close you are to a lit building. Then get availability and pricing for Ethernet and other telecom services from our Telarus consultants. Your location probably qualifies for more services at lower prices than you expect.