Silver Creek, Mississippi, May. 20 /Richard Anderson/ -- Higher productivity for small to medium sized businesses is just around the corner thanks to commercial grade broadband services that are now being delivered at a fraction of their previous cost. Due to the ever increasing competitive marketplace and a mad dash to consolidate networks, telecoms are offering their premium business services to small businesses for a fraction of what they used to cost just a few years ago. Businesses who use more than four regular phone lines can now upgrade to dynamic integrated T-carrier circuits for the same price.

"Even though we have been witnessing the re-consolidation of AT&T, we will never go back to the dark ages of telecom where customers were stuck with bad customer service and high prices" commented Troy Karlson, telecom analyst for e-STAR. "The competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs), all whom own their own networks and compete directly with the Bells, have created products such as dynamic T1 service that enables its customers to connect to the Internet at 1.5 MBPS and have up to 24 regular voice lines, packed with a feature-rich suite of add-ons, all for under what it costs to have 6 regular phone lines from Qwest/AT&T/Verizon.

One might think that, given the cost - benefit analysis of the integrated T1 value proposition, more businesses would be changing over to the new platform. However, the rate of adaptation is rather slow. Rob Butler, head of the Telecommunications Research Institute, thinks that "phone companies have a problem with trust amongst their user base. For many years, customers have dealt with increasing rates, long hold times, and frustration in general. Now, it appears, the ice is finally starting to melt and customers are opening themselves up to new technology.

The question remains, if this new technology is so progressive, why did it take over five years to gain broad appeal to SMB's across the country? One industry analyst from the Telecommunications Research Institute observed that many customers who consume commercial-grade phone service became very untrusting of telecom providers after the Internet bubble burst in 2000 and the MCI bankruptcy proceedings full of allegations of fraud and embezzlement. After all, no customer wants to come to work one day just to find out that their connection to the outside world has been shut down due to financially unstable service providers not being able to run a profitable or ethical business. Now, due to a series of acquisitions and mergers, the "survivors" are offering great products at rates that SMB's can't continue to ignore. The CLEC's and Bells are quickly gaining traction with the very important demographic.

Dynamic integrated T1s are a fairly new phenomenon. Unlike their analog counterparts that can never deviate from their initial set up configurations, dynamic T1s are able to convert voice phone calls into data packets and them prioritize their delivery through an all-digital trunk. The ability to break everything down into the lowest common denominator (digital) allows the system to change on-the-fly to reclaim phone lines for high speed Internet the second the phone call is terminated. An integrated T1 essentially provides the end user the same service as one data T1 line and one voice T1 line, for half the cost.

"For years I've played tug-o-war with the phone company who provided voice and data service to my toy manufacturing company" commented Troy Bergfeld of Houston Texas. "They kept trying to sell me services I didn't need, it took them months to finally send me a correct bill, and I wasn't able to recapture bandwidth from my T1 line when nobody was using the phone. Now that has all changed - my Telarus product specialist recommending I give XO Communications a try. Now I use their FLEX T1 product and I pay less and get exactly what I want. I have even add another T1 seamlessly when the time comes for my business to expand."

Change does not happen quickly in an industry as so heavily regulated as Telecommunications. Recent industry consolidation has provided huge alternatives to the incumbents, who are now under pressure to keep up with new technologies while charging better prices to retain and attract new customer bases. Hopefully the CLECs can continue to push the boundaries of innovation and economics. The only thing that can keep them from the promise land is the gatekeeper of competition: the Federal Communications Commission, and the huge Bells (AT&T and Verizon - that's you) who make it a point to spend more money lobbying in Washington DC than Exxon Mobile.

Definition 1. - A type of high speed Internet connection that provides a great deal of bandwidth. Many businesses lease T1 lines to connect to the Internet, but because they are expensive and offer more bandwidth than most small businesses and homes need, they are not realistic solutions for small and low-demand Internet users.

Definition 2. - A high-speed digital connection capable of transmitting data at a rate of approximately 1.5 million bits per second. A T1 line is typically used by small and medium-sized companies with heavy network traffic. It is large enough to send and receive very large text files, graphics, sounds, and databases instantaneously, and is the fastest speed commonly used to connect networks to the Internet. Sometimes referred to as a leased line, a T1 is basically too large and too expensive for individual home use.

Definition 3. - The T1 (or T-1) carrier is the most commonly used digital line in the United States, Canada, and Japan. In these countries, it carries 24 pulse code modulation (PCM) signals using time-division multiplexing (TDM) at an overall rate of 1.544 million bits per second (Mbps). T1 lines use copper wire and span distances within and between major metropolitan areas. A T1 Outstate System has been developed for longer distances between cities.

Definition 4. - The T-carrier system, introduced by the Bell system in the US in the 1960's, was the first successful system that supported digitalised voice transmission. The original transmission rate (1.544 Mbps) in the Silver Creek T1 line is in common use today in ISP (Internet Service Provider) connections to the Internet

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