T1 Line Attributes

T1 lines have become the de facto standard for small to medium business connectivity. They’re used for dedicated Internet connections, point to point private lines, network access, and business telephone trunks. Let’s have a look at the attributes that make T1 lines so popular.

A T1 line consists of one or two twisted pair of copper telco wiring that runs between your business location and the telephone company central office (CO) where your line terminates. The incumbent local telephone company owns that run of copper, but that doesn’t mean that you have to buy your T1 service through the phone company. In fact, you’ll probably get a better deal from one of the many competitive T1 service providers who offer these lines.

How can that be? The phone company owns the copper, but they lease out unused pairs at attractive rates. It’s all part of the telecom deregulation process that’s taken place in recent decades. Competitive service providers who are capable of supplying T1 service then vie for your business and will lease the copper connections necessary to connect to your facility.

Note that I said T1 can be provisioned over one or two twisted copper pair. The original specification for this line service required two copper pair. One is used for transmit or upload. The other is for receive or download. There is a specified voltage, wave shape and pulse width defined for the line signals. The transmission rate is 1.5 Mbps over 6,000 ft. runs before the signal degrades too far to be usable. To go farther, electronic boxes called signal regenerators are placed at 6,000 ft. increments to restore the T1 signals to their original characteristics. Based on this technology, T1 lines can reach many miles into the countryside to connect just about any business location.

You may find that your T1 line comes in on just one pair of copper wires. That’s due to a newer modulation technology called HSDL2 that can transport both transmit and receive signals over the same wire pair up to about 12,000 ft. That’s sufficient to reach most business locations.

Your T1 service will be provided to you through an interface connection called a “smart jack.” This small electronics box connects to the incoming copper wire and gives you a port over an RJ-48C connector. This jack looks like a standard Ethernet RJ-45, but uses a keyed connector. You need a specialized cable that plugs into the RJ-48C and connects to your equipment on the other end. Your equipment will need a “T1” interface card or “ISDN PRI” interface card if you are using ISDN PRI telephone service. The T1 signal is unique and not directly compatible with Ethernet or other digital signals.

So much for the physical attributes of T1. Now let’s look at how T1 bit are organized. When used for telephone service, T1 lines are organized at 24 channels or time slots of 64 Kbps each. One channel can support one telephone call. When used for data transmission, the channel divisions are ignored in favor of a single 1.5 Mbps “pipe.” This pipe is symmetrical. You have the same 1.5 Mbps in both upload and download directions.

What about ISDN PRI? This is a special format of T1 telephone service that consists of 23 channels that can provide 23 separate business telephone lines. The 24th channel is used for switching signals and Caller ID / ANI information.

A further attribute of T1 lines is that they can be bonded together to create higher bandwidth lines. If 1.5 Mbps isn’t enough, you can get double bonded or 2xT1 service that combines 2 T1 lines for 3 Mbps. Yes, you can keep adding lines until you reach a practical limit at about 10 or 12 Mbps.

How about your business? Could you benefit from T1 line service or a better price on the T1 service your have now? If so, there are excellent deals available on T1 and bonded T1 line service right now. Get competitive quotes and see for yourself that T1 is more affordable now than ever before.

The Importance Of Buying Ernest

If you are a company with dozens, hundreds or thousands of locations, what you’d really like to deal with is a national local phone company for your telecom needs. But national local is an oxymoron, right? Can there even be such a company?

There is and it’s called Ernest Communications. This organization is unlike no telephone company you’ve dealt with. It’s focus is large nationwide multi-location accounts needing telephone lines, data lines, wireless mobile, or all of these.

What type of businesses fall into this category? National or regional chain stores come to mind immediately. Also, hotels, motels, gas stations, financial services, healthcare, real estate offices, insurance companies, entertainment venues such as theaters, and quick service restaurants. You can probably think of more categories, including the business you are in.

Any company depending on franchises, branch offices or service centers is in the business of supporting a multitude of small local operations. Every one of them has communications needs. Now, would you like to deal with a hundred or thousand separate local service providers or one larger company that has the staffing, expertise and products to handle all your business. Not only does this make your life easier by having a single point of contact, but you’ll likely save money due to the economy of scale.

Ernest Communications has taken advantage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to gain access to the nearly 200 million local lines that make up the Public Switched Telephone Network. Ernest provides your local telephone service plus they include most of the common custom calling features such as Call Waiting and Caller ID. Directory Assistance and IntraLATA toll charges are included in flat rate and blended rate plans. They’ll block all 3rd party and casual billing charges. Long distance rates are competitive.

Nearly all locations now require reliable broadband as well as telephone services. Ernest can provide high speed Internet access with speeds from 1.5 Mbps to 45 Mbps with performance governed by Service Level Agreements (SLA). You’ll get professional installation and 24/7/365 monitoring, which is not always the case with other providers.

Does your company have enough employees at one or more locations that you use a key telephone system or in-house PBX? Ernest can provide you with the ISDN PRI digital telephone lines that you need.

Many companies also now depend on wireless communications as well as line services to get the job done. Think about field service and sales people. Ernest has perhaps the only nationwide wireless solution designed specifically for business use. You’ll be able to choose from a variety of handsets, smartphones and mobile data devices, including BlackBerry devices. You also have your choice of shared, pooled, bundled and pay-per-use plans.

Getting your telecom services from a single provider has the advantage of giving you a single bill that combines all your voice, mobility and data services. Plus you have the ease of management that comes from having a single point of contact for moves, adds, changes and deletes that are part of normal business activity.

Could your regional or national multi-location business simplify operations and save money by working with a nationwide communications company? Why not get a competitive quote for your voice, data and mobility services and see for yourself. Our Telarus consultants can help you with this, plus any of your higher bandwidth or international communications needs.