How To Find Better Metro E Service Prices

Metro E or Metro Ethernet services are available in most cities. Businesses with a strong presence in a particular metropolitan area can use Metro E to good advantage in linking their various satellite offices, warehouses, factories, retail outlets and so on. The big issue is how can these companies be sure they are getting the best prices on the Metro Ethernet services they put on contract.

Metro Ethernet is a subset of the MAN or Metropolitan Area Network. Metro networks sprung up to address the needs of local businesses who didn’t necessarily need connections to other cities and states. What they really need is a way to connect from their headquarters location to their remotely located data center or backup data center miles away. Other connections are needed for branch offices and other operational locations.

This need for high performance, but local, network connections led to the rise of MAN operators. Like telcos or ISPs, they provide a set of services. In this case, it is most often access to a fiber optic ring that encircles the city and includes key suburbs, office and industrial parks. Last mile connections are provided from each business subscriber to the fiber ring. These can be fiber optic links or twisted pair copper connections depending on the bandwidth needed.

Most Metro networks were constructed using dual SONET rings with a working ring and a protection ring carrying traffic in opposite directions. Standard SONET ring protection offers an automatic failover within 50 mSec if the main ring fails for any reason. This self-healing capability improves the resiliency of SONET fiber optic networks to survive equipment failures and severed lines called “backhoe fade.”

SONET services include OC3, OC12 and OC48 telecom services. DS3 is also often available multiplexed on OC3 services. One issue with SONET is that the service levels aren’t very granular. There a big step, for instance, between OC3 at 155 Mbps and OC12 and 622 Mbps.

Metro Ethernet, also called Carrier Ethernet, addresses many of the limitations of legacy SONET services. Metro E may be provided as a service on SONET networks called Ethernet over SONET. This way the underlying network can be kept in place avoiding large construction costs. Some newer metropolitan networks are IP based to begin with. They offer Ethernet services by default.

One issue is ease of interfacing with the MAN. Ethernet is the standard protocol of company LANs. With an Ethernet connection to the MAN, you simply plug an Ethernet patch cord, fiber or copper, between your network edge router and the carrier’s demarcation connection. SONET requires a special interface card to do the protocol conversion between Ethernet, a network protocol, and SONET, a telecommunications protocol. SONET interfaces are unique OC3, OC12, OC48 and so on. Ethernet interfaces are ports with maximum speeds. A typical Ethernet port is 100 Mbps, 1000 Mbps or 10 Gbps. These support any network speed up to the maximum the installed port can handle. This make it easy for service providers to offer an almost infinite selection of bandwidths to their customers.

Since everything stays in the Ethernet protocol end to end, Metro E can be used to bridge multiple company LANs in the metro area. This is called Ethernet LAN service or E-LAN. You can also get point to point private line connections called Ethernet Line service or E-Line.

Metro E also addresses another limitation of SONET, which is historically high costs. Ethernet services of similar bandwidth are often half the price of their SONET equivalent. Extensive scalability also means that companies can select a bandwidth level closer to what they actually need instead of being cramped for speed or having to order way more than can be practically put to use.

How can you be sure that you are getting the best Metro Ethernet or even SONET MAN service prices? The best way is to work through a bandwidth broker that represents dozens of top tier service providers. Not only do you save time with one-stop shopping, but it is likely that you’ll get quotes from competitive carriers that you may not even be aware of.

Are you currently using metropolitan area network services or have a new requirement for metro bandwidth? If so, get prices and availability of Metro E and SONET network services from providers that serve your business locations.



Note: Photograph of Pittsburgh skyline part of a panorama courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

What Leased Line Service Providers Offer

Most businesses get their telecommunication services from leased line service providers. That includes telephone, Internet, and point to point line services. You probably have some of these contracts yourself. But do you know about the cost reductions and all of the new services that have become available recently?

The nature of telecommunications services has changed dramatically in recent years. The two biggest changes are cost savings that come from a flurry of new competitive service providers and the introduction of new technologies that offer additional services.

You can still get most of the telecom services that were available a decade or so ago. The most popular line service is T-carrier, especially the T1 line. T1 is a telephone company technology and comes in several flavors. The original use was a digital trunk to carry multiple phone calls between telco switching centers or into a multi-line business phone system. An upgraded version of the T1 telephone line is called T1 PRI or ISDN PRI. It gives you up to 23 outside phone lines plus a data channel for dialing, switching and Caller ID. Nearly every PBX phone system and many key telephone systems can be easily configured to use T1 PRI.

Another use for T1 lines is to provide point to point connectivity between two business locations. A point to point T1 line offers 1.5 Mbps in both directions simultaneously. If you need more bandwidth than this, you can get bonded T1 service that combines multiple T1 lines up to about 10 or 12 Mbps total.

A related service is the T1 access line. This is a last mile connection to a larger network. At one time, the larger network was called Frame Relay. Nowadays, MPLS networks have taken over this role of connecting business locations on a regional, national or international basis. MPLS networks have the advantages of nearly unlimited bandwidth that can transport just about any voice, data or video protocol.

T1 Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) is the choice for broadband Internet access for many smaller businesses. The cost is only a fraction of what it was a decade ago. As a professional grade telecom service, you enjoy a reliability and constant bandwidth not typical of consumer oriented services like DSL and Cable.

The new competition to T1 lines is coming from Carrier Ethernet services, including Metro Ethernet. Like T1, Ethernet is a wireline service. Also like T1, it is delivered on multiple twisted pair copper wiring for lower bandwidth services. That copper wiring is generally already installed for multi-line telephone service. Ethernet offers the same point to point and Internet connections you may be using with T1 lines now. But Ethernet can also give you layer 2 switched network service between several or more locations around town or over a wider area, including overseas offices.

Ethernet is gradually taking over from T1 in metropolitan areas where it is most available. A popular service is 3 Mbps Ethernet for about the same price as a 1.5 Mbps T1 line. For more demanding uses, 10 Mbps Ethernet is becoming a popular standard.

Once you get into the higher bandwidths, 45 Mbps and above, fiber optic cabling takes the place of twisted pair copper. DS3 is the T-carrier upgrade to T1. It is now delivered over SONET fiber optic services at 45 Mbps. The Ethernet equivalent is 50 Mbps Ethernet service, although Fast Ethernet at 100 Mbps is an industry standard and the speed of many local networks. Like copper-based Ethernet services Ethernet over Fiber tends to offer much lower costs per Mbps than equivalent traditional SONET telecom services.

You should also know that both T1 and Ethernet services have an option to get both telephone and Internet over the same line. Integrated T1 is the legacy wireline service. SIP trunking is the IP service that gives you VoIP telephony and broadband Internet access.

Have you been wondering if you are paying too much for the wireline services you’ve just kept renewing over the years? Find out by getting up to date quotes for both Ethernet and T1 or SONET wireline services from dozens of competitive service providers. The range of services and their current costs may astound you.



Note: Photo of multipair cable courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Metro Ethernet Has Cost and Performance Advantages

Most everything you buy has tradeoffs. Telecommunication services are no exception. You have to weigh the relative merits of cost, speed, and reliability to decide the best option for your application. But Metro Ethernet is changing the rules of the game. It’s not only highly reliable, but Mbps for Mbps it has the advantage for both performance and cost.

What is Metro Ethernet? You’re familiar with the type of Ethernet that runs on your local area network. Metro Ethernet extends your LAN into the surrounding metropolitan area. It can provide a high speed point to point connection to one or more of your business locations in town. It can also connect to a long haul network and join two business networks on other sides of the country.

One beauty of Metro Ethernet is that your connection to the service is through the familiar Ethernet jacks similar to the ones you already use. No need to worry about special Interface equipment or ad-hoc plug-ins for your routers. It’s Ethernet.

Another real advantage of Metro Ethernet is that you can connect to it via router or switch. There’s no protocol conversion involved. That not only increases the efficiency of your bandwidth, but gives you a way to tie to LANs together to make a single large network. Forget those distance limitations imposed by traditional Ethernet cabling. Metro Ethernet is designed for the WAN or Wide Area Network. That’s everything outside of your building or campus.

But the stunning advantage of Metro Ethernet is that it costs so much less than traditional TDM-based telecom services. You would expect a newer technology service with better performance characteristics to cost more, not less. But that’s not the way it’s working out. New competitive carriers with IP core networks are bypassing the local telcos for last mile access and offering outstanding end to end pricing. You might pay half or less for a medium bandwidth service compared to what you’re paying now.

Another important advantage of Metro Ethernet is that you have a choice of bandwidths. Options vary from provider to provider, but you may well be able to order anything from 1 Mbps to 10 Gbps.

The lower speeds are especially attractive because they can be delivered over twisted copper pair telco binders. Get 1, 5, 7.5, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25 or even up to 45 Mbps speeds over multi-pair copper. Chances are that your business location is already served by this type of telco cabling and has unused pairs available. That means no construction costs. The service provider will install a managed router with the necessary interface and you simply plug your network into that.

Higher bandwidths are also available at bargain rates compared with long-standing SONET fiber optic prices. Get Fast Ethernet at 100 Mbps or Gigabit Ethernet at 1000 Mbps to match your LAN speeds. Need more bandwidth. You may qualify for 10GigE at 10 Gigabits per second. Even 100 Gbps WAN service is not that far off.

There is one caveat to the superior characteristics of Metro Ethernet. Metro means metropolitan, not rural. Out in the boonies you are not likely to find this service as of yet. But you can still get T1 lines and bonded T1 service at reasonable rates.

Is Metro Ethernet service the best option for your company or organization? Find out by checking prices and availability of Metro Ethernet and other high bandwidth services.