100 Mbps Fast Ethernet for your Business

By: John Shepler

Are you feeling the pinch of too little bandwidth to support your more sophisticated business applications, such as cloud services, big data, VoIP telephony, video conferencing or simple video downloads? It’s a good time to take a look at making the move to 100 x 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet service. Let’s have a look at a quick video on Fast Ethernet:


Fast Ethernet at 100 Mbps is just one option of many offered by Carrier Ethernet providers. You can get bandwidths as low as 10 Mbps or as high as 10 Gbps to support you business needs. What’s even better is that you have the option to order the bandwidth you need today with an easy upgrade path when you need more. By installing a port that can handle your anticipated needs, you can pay for what you need now and add bandwidth incrementally with no more than a simple phone call.

Learn more about Ethernet bandwidth options for your business with free consultation and instant online pricing.

Triple Play For Business

One of the hottest trends in consumer telecom services is called the “residential triple play.” This is a bundling that combines three electronic services that nearly every home subscribes to. They are television, telephone and broadband.

The bundling is made possible because one provider can deliver all three at a combined price that is lower than buying the same services from three separate providers. Cable companies are in the best position to deliver the triple play, but the package is also offered by telephone companies and wireless service providers. The advantage for cable is due to the very high bandwidth capability of their HFC (Hybrid Fiber Cable) facilities.

That’s great for consumers, but what about business? Is there such a thing as triple play for business? You bet. It’s available for businesses with their own business locations.

Not surprisingly, a huge provider of triple play is Comcast. You may know that Comcast is the largest Cable TV provider in the US. Comcast broadband is hugely popular with both consumers and small businesses. But did you also know that Comcast is the 3rd largest phone company in America?

The idea that the coaxial cable from a Cable company is pretty much the same as the one that connects the TV antenna on the roof is way out of date. Today’s cable is a sophisticated collection of multiplexed channels that carry voice, video and data equally well.

Multiplexing is the technique that divides the 1,000 MHz bandwidth capacity of the coaxial combined fiber and copper transmission facility into neatly spaced 6 MHz channels. Those channels are exactly the same size as over the air TV channels so it’s easy to fit one TV station per channel. However, those channels can be used for other purposes as well.

The two most popular non-TV services on Cable are broadband and telephone. You have your choice of one or more standard business phone lines or an ISDN PRI trunk line that is bundles up to 23 lines for connection to an in-house PBX telephone system.

You probably are using DSL, satellite or T1 lines now for your business broadband service. It’s likely that you’re getting something like 1 to 2 Mbps download bandwidth. DSL can go higher, but your bandwidth decreases the further you get from the telephone company central office. Cable has such high bandwidth capacity, that it delivers business broadband at 50 to 100 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload. Comcast’s smallest service starts at 12 Mbps/2Mbps.

You’re probably wondering if you can afford a triple play package? It’s likely you can’t afford not to go this way if you have the type of business where your customers wait on-site, like a doctor’s office or auto service center. That's where the TV service of triple play has its value. There are also packages for businesses like bars and restaurants that serve a walk-in clientele. How much are we talking? About the price of that T1 line will get you faster broadband plus telephone service with basic TV channels included.

What if you don’t need television in your business? Is there such a thing as double play?

Of course. Many, many professional offices, retail stores and quick service restaurants need a combination of reliable phone service and high speed broadband to meet their needs. Get these two services cheaper than buying separately from a telephone company and an Internet service provider.

Can you cut costs while getting the same or better voice, data and video services for your company? It’s well worth your time to find out. Check availability and pricing for bundled business broadband, telephone and TV services now.

Dark Fiber Network Expansion Underway

If there is any doubt that we are a bandwidth addicted society, it should be removed with the announcement that a major dark fiber network project has been launched by Allied Fiber. When finished, it will circle the US perimeter with 548 dark fibers and 300 tower sites.

Fiber optic communications is coming into its own, and this time it’s likely here to stay. Back in the 1990’s, thousands of miles of fiber optic cable were buried in anticipation of a telecommunications revolution that fizzled along with the technology sector in general. There is still lots of unlit fiber laying quietly in the ground, but it’s probably going to get lit sooner rather than later. That telecom revolution looks to be on again.

The original fiber optic cables were installed to support telephone calls. Voice services are the least of the demand for bandwidth anymore. Data is on the rise and rising, but video is the killer app. By that, I mean the app that will kill your network bandwidth faster than anything. Video has morphed from NTSC analog television to HDTV, with 3D starting to gain a foothold. It’s not just television, either. Video means YouTube, Netflix, Telepresence, and mobile. The proliferation of all types of video services have necessitated special content delivery networks that offload the Internet up until the last mile service provider.

The traditional T1 lines that backhaul cellular towers are just about out of capability, now that every smartphone has a data service and everyone wants to download apps on the fly and watch video content while on the go. The next generation of phones will have 2 cameras, one facing out for taking pictures and recording video clips and the other facing the user for 2-way video conferencing. There’s a new bandwidth demand that far exceeds the traditional voice conversation. It’s just as expensive to bury new copper to meet the demand as it is to bury fiber optic cables, so new backhaul will be over fiber.

Independent service providers, content delivery networks, major corporations, medical center networks and scientific research labs are among those users who find that leasing or owning dark fiber assets give them the bandwidth they need, when they need it. Dark fiber is just what it sounds like. It’s glass fiber strands within a cable bundle that haven’t been “lit” or connected to terminal equipment yet. Without a laser light shining through their core, they are truly “dark.” But those who have access to dark fiber, can choose what equipment to connect for the bandwidth and protocols they want to support. If you need more bandwidth down the road, you can use the same fiber by simply upgrading modules in your terminal equipment.

Do you need the flexibility of being able to completely manage your wide area network down to the very terminal equipment at each end? If so, you may want to take a closer look at dark fiber as the most flexible way to connect between locations. Prices are lower than they’ve ever been. You might be surprised by how affordable dark fiber is in special circumstances. Let our Telarus bandwidth consultants consider your applications and offer you an array of solutions that include dark fiber network services.

HTC HD2 Smartphone With Movies

When was the last time someone offered you a cell phone with two full-length movies already installed? That’s just the start of the surprises you’ll find with the HTC HD2 smartphone for T-Mobile. It doesn’t just say “entertainment,” it screams it!

You might suspect this phone is built for multimedia when you take a look at the huge touch screen display. This one boasts a screen size of 4.3 inches and a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. Does that sound like a cell phone or a small computer? Yes.

The HD2 is a widescreen Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone with HTC Sense running on a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor. You saw correctly. This gadget runs at a blazing GHz. That means you can run multiple applications at once without experiencing time lags. To keep up, cellular broadband is at the 3G level wherever available. Not fast enough? Step into the closest WiFi hotspot and download even faster.

But what about those movies? Oh, yes. You get “Transformers” and “Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen” pre-installed on a 16 GB memory card. You can use other memory cards up to 32 GB for all the storage you need. That’s storage for movies, of course. But it's also storage for the pictures and videos you take yourself. Plus eBooks, music, and documents (for those occasional times you have to work). The HD2 comes pre-loaded with apps that include Blockbuster, Barnes & Noble eBooks, MobiTV and Guitar Hero. The MobiTV app includes a 30 day free trial, the Barnes &Noble eBooks app includes 3 free books, and the Blockbuster app includes 2 free rentals. There’s also a GoGo app that includes 6 months of free in-flight WiFi. No reason not to use this beauty as you soar through the skies.

The digital camera of this HTC smartphone deserves special mention. It’s got 5 Megapixels of resolution and multiple capture modes, including widescreen. There’s a dual LED flash and zoom. So, you need a standalone digital camera... why?

For you mobile professionals, this is also a work phone. You can access Microsoft apps including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Enhanced teleconferencing includes easy invites to conference call participants from your email. The SWYPE keyboard option helps you type up to 50 words per minute. That important because it lets you get back to entertainment as fast as possible.

It’s an entertainment phone. It’s a work phone. That pretty much covers the day’s activities. The question is whether this is the phone you must have next. Well, is it? If so, learn more and order your HTC HD2 smartphone for T-Mobile at a deep discount online. You’ll also get free shipping. But hurry, this deal could change at any time without notice and you don't want to miss out.

Of course, if you prefer a different model of phone or a different carrier there is a huge selection of free and low cost mobile devices to choose from. Shop now through Cell Phone Plans Finder and be sure to check the specials for today.

Cisco's New Terabit Monster Router

Cisco's new edge router, the ASR 9000, is upping the ante on network bandwidth. This beast will deliver 6.4 Tbps when fully loaded at 400 Gbps per slot. Who needs a router this powerful? Probably not your mom and pop retail store. But they might be using services downstream from a carrier who has installed an ASR 9000. Why the need for even more speed? One word: Video.

Video not only killed the radio star, it's pretty much killing service providers too. The Internet was conceived and built in an era when text was king. As technology and applications evolved, it managed to scale up with the move to more visual Web pages. But video is taxing the ability of service providers to add bandwidth as fast as users glomp onto more and more video content. It's YouTube, certainly. But it's also Web pages that embed video reports instead of text, and TV producers that see the Internet as another medium for distributing their programs.

So bad has it gotten, that major ISPs have taken to impose download limits on what was once unlimited broadband. They're easing into this by setting the cutoff point high enough so that only rabid video downloaders are likely to get kicked off the network. But today's rabid downloaders are merely early adopters of the way we'll all want our content delivered eventually. It's going to be high definition large screen full length video at will. Once this genie gets completely out of the bottle, satellite and cable are going to have to scramble to avoid becoming as limited as over-the-air TV channels when it comes to program delivery. If we had the set top boxes, programming guides and motivated content producers today, the Internet would be brought to its knees overnight.

That's what Cisco is trying to address with the ASR 9000. What might appear to be overkill for many edge router applications is going to be a normal requirement sooner than we think. In fact, the ASR 9000 is targeted at video service providers, such as cable companies, and also at mobile providers. These include cell phone companies that are starting to push mobile video and likely WiMAX operators who will be dealing with video-craving users sooner than they may think.

The other trend that Cisco is positioning for is the move from legacy time division network technology to Ethernet and MPLS. The ASR9000 has built-in capabilities for IPoDWDM or IP over Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing as a next-generation network core technology.

You don't really need Terabit transport requirements to take advantage of Ethernet and MPLS in your business. Metro Ethernet offers cost savings over traditional DS3 bandwidth and can often be provisioned over copper pair rather than fiber optic cable for bandwidths below 50 Mbps. MPLS networks are fast becoming the preferred method to interconnect multiple business locations.

Is your network ready for an upgrade? Take advantage of our VAR Network to find authorized dealers for Cisco routers and other professional grade network equipment and services.

First in Windmills, First in WiMAX

When it comes to the important technologies for the 21st century, where in the world do you look? Is it the United States where the Internet was born? Perhaps China or Japan where just about everything is manufactured? How about India where design expertise is concentrating? No, none of these. Would you believe Holland?

The Dutch have been leaders in business and technology for hundreds of years. Now they're the first in Europe to implement mobile WiMAX as a wireless broadband standard.

Mobile WiMAX, defined by the IEEE 802.16e standard, is an extension of the original fixed wireless 802.16d being promoted as a humongous Wi-Fi hotspot or the answer to 3G cellular backhaul woes. What mobile WiMAX brings to table is the ability to move around with automatic hand-offs between base stations. If this sounds like the way cellular networks work, it is. But instead of CDMA or GSM transmission technology, WiMAX is designed to support IP networking rather than traditional telephone voice channels.

Not that WiMAX can't be used for telephony. In fact, it may be WiMAX that gives mobile VoIP the platform it needs to take off. But voice is seen as the small piece of the pie. What mobile broadband with significant user bandwidth can really do is transport live video feeds and all those video downloads that are clogging-up the Internet delivery networks. WiMAX providers may find themselves as dazed and confused as the cable and telco operators if video goes mobile in a big way.

Who better to solve this dilemma than the Dutch? They were the first to come up with solutions to the rising tide of global warming before anybody paid attention to carbon dioxide. Dutch windmills reclaimed land from the sea for habitation and agriculture using a nationwide system of windmills to pump the lowlands dry.

We used to think that windmills were quaint in the United States. Now we can't put them up fast enough to generate clean power. We're not at the point of having to hold back the ocean yet. But as sea levels rise and beaches start to disappear, we may very well take a serious look at the Zuiderzee and Delta works in the Netherlands.

WiMAX is also coming here in the fall, courtesy of Sprint and Clearwire. As WiMAX builds-out, it will face stiff competition from LTE, a competing technology being deployed by AT&T and Verizon. Whether the competition for users will slow down 4G wireless or only serve to speed up availability of desperately needed bandwidth remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, Worldmax will be expanding on its Amsterdam mobile WiMAX network that has already started operation. They eventually expect to deploy about 3,000 sites to cover all of the Netherlands, financial resources permitting. Watching how the service plays out will be a good leading indicator of how mobile WiMAX networks will actually be used once they are universally available.

Why Video is Moving to H.264

It is well known that video applications are sopping up Internet bandwidth almost as fast as it can be deployed. Digital video is the hot new medium of communications. It's taking over television broadcasting, becoming a larger part of Web content, and being looked at as combination cost savings, productivity improvement and "green" enabler for corporations. Video has many things going for it and one big drawback. It's a bandwidth hog. In fact, it's a bandwidth monster.

A video coding standard called H.264 offers the opportunity to get better quality video at lower bandwidths. Yes, it's a compression standard. Hardly anybody can afford to have uncompressed high quality video running around their networks at anywhere from a couple hundred Mbps to over a Gbps. That's the realm of video producers and national broadcast networks. For other businesses and consumers, video compression is necessary to fit within the bandwidth of reasonably priced wireless and wireline transport systems. The real trick in compression is to reduce the bandwidth requirement while preserving the quality of the original video stream.

The popularity of H.264 is growing because it maintains perceived video quality while cutting bandwidth requirements by as much as half. It does this by using a sophisticated algorithm within its CODEC (Coder/Decoder) hardware and software. The coders and decoders aren't some simple circuitry. There's some very sophisticated processing going on in there to determine which bits can be dropped without anyone noticing and which much be preserved to maintain scene quality.

You'll be hearing a lot more about H.264 and see it popping up in the technical specifications of all sorts of equipment and applications. Cisco's TelePresence service, a high definition version of traditional video conferencing, uses H.264. So do HTDV broadcasters in Europe. Blu-Ray high definition DVDs are H.264 based. Apple has incorporated it as a standard in its QuickTime video player.

What H.264 has going for it is worldwide standardization and the ability to tailor its processing to accommodate a wide range of video requirements from cell phone displays, embedded players in Web pages all the way up to high end video conferences and HD videos. You'll also find it referred to as MPEG-4 Part 10 or MPEG-4 AVC (Advanced Video Coding). That's different than the earlier MPEG-4 Part 2 standard and certainly different than the MPEG-2 which is widely used for standard TV satellite transmission. Satellite TV services such as Dish Network and DirecTV use MPEG-2 for standard TV channels but MPEG-4 AVC for their newer HDTV channels.

If video is becoming an important part of your business tools or part of your creative content, you may already be feeling the pinch of limited bandwidth. Newer compression technology, such as H.264, may help ease the congestion. So will transport bandwidth upgrades that are less expensive now than ever before. Find out how Ethernet, bonded T1, and SONET fiber optic services can help you keep up with business bandwidth demands.