North Dakota, May. 02 /Jerome Jones/ -- Business broadband, its price, and who can afford it, are changing. Every day an increasing number of business are finding the new broadband services made available to them by the "new" telecommunications companies that are emerging from the latest round of mergers and acquisitions. Overlapping networks are being consolidated into bigger and leaner footprints, lowering the cost of dynamic integrated digital signal 1 (DS1) service to the price range of about five regular phone lines. Small to medium size business can now afford services once reserved for the Fortune 1000 companies.

The Integrated T1 line has two general flavors; analog and, of course, digital. The term "trunk" is synonymous with an integrated T1 line, representing 24 bundled DS0 (regular 64KB) channels. Digital trunks form the basis technology for dynamic integrated lines, which are capable of transporting digitized versions of voice traffic in addition to regular data packets. This ability of digital trunks to function in the data realm allows it the ability to dynamically allocate traffic according to the application, allowing priority for voice traffic and "re-claiming" that bandwidth for data transfer when the phone call is completed. This ensures that none of the capacity of the T1 line is ever wasted.

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 real benefit I've seen since upgrading to a dynamic integrated T1 from Nuvox Communications is simplicity" commented Johan Sebastian, a small business owner in Clearwater, Florida. "My phones work great, my internet is fast, and the best part is the reliability; I haven't had a single outage since I signed up for the new service over a year ago. Before when we had DSL and POTS lines, every day was an adventure."

Integrated T1s comes in two basic configurations: digital and analog trunks, with a trunk being a 24-line (or channel) bundle. The newer, digital trunks, however, are able to run both voice and data over the same channels. By assigning priority to the voice traffic whenever it is present, a dynamic integrated trunk can provide the end-user with a full 1.5 MBPS of data throughput if no phone calls are in progress. As more voice lines are required, less data lines are available. Analog trunks are all pre-assigned to either voice or data traffic, and do not reconfigure in the event there is no voice traffic.

North Dakota is a place that we found was a hot spot for small business owners making the move over to dynamic T-1 lines. One business owner that we interviewed gave glowing reviews of his move to TelePacific's "OnePac" dynamic product. Keith Gray explained "I used to have a regular integrated T1 with 10 voice lines and 14 data channels. When no one was using the phone in my office, we were limited to just 896 KB of bandwidth. After searching on the Internet for better options, I found that I could reduce my price from $850/month to $500/month, and at the same time have 14 voice lines and 1.5 mbps of broadband. I didn't take long for me to pull the trigger and make the change."

But how much longer will we continue to see improved technology, services, and prices? It's all in the hands of the Federal Communications Commission, as they have the power to sqwash the CLECs by proxy. No wonder AT&T and Verizon are the two biggest lobbying powers in Washington. It makes you wonder what kind of services they would be able to offer had they plowed that money into R&D instead of politics. With the help of super-CLECs like XO Communications, PAETEC, Nuvox, One Communications, Cavalier Telephone, and TelePacific, small business owners everywhere now have access to non-Bell service that is on par or better than those being offered by the former Bells. Integrated T1s that do more and cost less have transformed into a solid beach head for the newcomers.

Definition 1. - 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 2. - 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 3. - 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 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 T1 line is in common use today in ISP (Internet Service Provider) connections to the Internet