T1 Internet Service Do's and Dont's

[FreedomFireCom]

T1 Internet Service Do's and Dont's

T1 internet service is as ubiquitous as DVD players but the choices are much more varied. Ready to learn the basics and find a connections? In general, T-1 is a member of the T-carrier system. T-carrier is a communications system used for carrying voice and data transmissions in a digital format. T-1 meets the needs of businesses having multiple users on a system requiring fast speed and broad bandwidth. For a fixed monthly rate, businesses with 20 or more users can communicate via both voice and data. A Full T1 can accommodate as many as 24 users working at 64 Kbps.

T-1 is made up of 24 digital channels. This requires a digital connection device (CSU/DSU {customer switching unit/digital switching unit}) to connect to four wires to carry the information. All T1 lines require that a Channel Service Unit (CSU) be connected between your Data Terminal Equipment (DTE), i.e., a personal computer, and the T-1 line. A CSU serves both as a surge protector (to protect your equipment from voltage anomalies such as lightning) and a monitor of the line itself.

As mentioned previously a T1 connection is capable of delivering 1.5Mbps. DSL connections are also capable of delivering this speed however they are not nearly as reliable as a T1 connections and should not be considered as a business connections unless it's SDSL and even then you will likely have some downtime. If you have critical information being hosted in your office or have a large number of users accessing the internet on a regular basis, consider getting a T1 connections. Also remember to get a professional's assistance when you search for your provider. Each company will tell you their connection is the best available but a broker will act as your agent and help you find what's right for you.

Regards,
Michael Lemm
FreedomFire Communications
http://billzilla.com/mscprez
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[JRyanEZZI]

Just to elaborate on what Michael metioned...... the T-1 provider (or any IP Provider for that matter) which you choose will really depend more on your application and what you are looking to accomplish more than anything.
For example from my personal experience in buying and selling bandwidth, if you have a company with 35 employees that are using a T-1 for just standard email applications, they might be more inclined to go with more of a budget provider of T-1's such as allegiance, or broadview which would run them half of what a tier1 provider would charge. In this application, the company's IT people will know that the SLA's aren't top-notch and their IP connection might have a blip here and there.

Now in another instance you have a healthcare company which is connected to all their hospital affiliates through an IPVPN connection (going over their T-1 for IP) where they need to do real-time billing for the hospital in order to meet their HIPPA compliancey standards - which they need in turn to stay in business. This solution, even though it will be approximatley the same amount of traffic coming through as the one above, It will be based more on the Provider's reliability and Mean Time to Repair Service Level Agreements other than price - which will most likely go to a Tier 1 provider.

Bandwidth brokers are great, they give you a little of everything out there, can size up 5 companies according to price, SLA's etc. They even cut out the annoying sales guy calls that you will get over and over and over :D . The things I miss on the broker side is that without meeting with the sales/engineering teams, you have no idea of the type of people you will be dealing with over the next 1,2, or 3 yrs. You also don't get the specifics of each company, network layout, type of SONET, Installation process, SLA's, who to you call if the circuit is down at 330am (big question on my part....hate 800's), how the company was founded, financials, etc. The other thing I have done over the years is build up my vendors to the few GOOD sales guys out there that I can call at 3am if my circuit is down. They agree to this at the time of signing the contract as these few will take ownership of your account, and return your phone calls no matter whether its a good call or bad.

As I said earlier its all about your application - which goes as well for using brokers.

-John