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.



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T1 Lease Costs Reduced Again

T1 lines were once expensive connections reserved only for major corporations and the telecom industry. It's no secret that prices came down from the stratosphere due to competition. But now they've plunged again. What's that about?

A T1 line is a telecommunication circuit that is based on a telephony standard called the T-Carrier system. It was originally intended only for telephone companies to use as trunk lines between their central offices. But later, corporate telecom departments were allowed to order them to support PBX telephone systems and Internet service. For a long time T1 lines were the backbone of local Internet service providers. They were particularly popular with dial-up service providers. In fact, wireless Internet providers called WISPs still use T1 lines as their backhaul connection to the Internet.

But why are they suddenly so cheap? Because suddenly just about every business needs digital telecom services. That quick service restaurant you like to zip into for lunch? They don't write your order down on a little pad. They use a computerized point of sale system that also keeps track of inventory and accounting information. Many people pay with credit cards. Nobody runs those through the mechanical card crusher anymore. They swipe them on the cash box terminal and in a couple of seconds your card is accepted and your order transferred to a CRT screen in the kitchen. What you don't see is the automatic ordering data going back to headquarters. You may not even notice the IP security cameras that let management keep an eye on the store and parking lot after hours.

Most every restaurant, insurance branch, car dealer, coffee shop with a WiFi hotspot, big box retailer, grocery store, architect's office and other small to medium size businesses have gone digital. Computers are everywhere, PBX phone systems manage incoming and outgoing calls, security cams keep watch.

OK, but shouldn't increasing demand mean higher prices? If the world wasn't transforming to digital communications everywhere that might be true. But it is, and there is another technology boom underway right now. Many new companies are entering the digital communications business to take advantage of the burgeoning demand for voice and data services. They offer wireline, wireless and fiber optic services in all bandwidths from basic DSL up to Gigabit Ethernet. As these new companies proliferate, they get into each others territories and, all of a sudden, there's competition for your business.

Great, but with all these new service offerings how do you get the best deal. It's getting to hard to research it on your own. If all you do is check the phone book or spot an advertisement, you may miss some of the better offers. Your best bet is to use a specialized search engine that is designed specifically to find the best prices on business bandwidth. That tool is called GeoQuote (tm). You simply enter some basic information about your business and its location and run a search. In seconds you'll find the best offers on T1 lines in your area. If you are in a city of any size, it's likely going to be a long list.

It's also going to have price quotes that you may find startling. Like I said, T1 lease costs have really come down lately. Moreover, there are other services, such as Metro Ethernet, that weren't even available a few years ago. For higher bandwidth users, Ethernet is often cheaper per Mbps than competing services. How much cheaper? Run a GeoQuote business bandwidth search for your location now and see what you've been missing.