Monday April 28, 2008,
02:00 pm ET
Erie County, Ohio, Apr. 28 /Michael Johnson/ --
Small businesses all over the country are discovering a whole new universe of broadband access.
As the price of commercial-grade telecommunication services continues to drop, more and more
enterprises are starting to drop their plain old telephone service lines in favor of all-digital
T1 trunks that deliver voice and data over the same connection. These new enhancements were
made possible by the increasing pace of consolidation in the telecommunication industry along
with the increasing value bigger phone companies can provide.
The old-school integrated T-1 was analog in nature, and came with 24 configurable
channels (called a trunk) which could be configured to carry either voice or data
traffic. The new "dynamic" trunks are all-digital and can change on-the-fly
to carry either data or voice traffic. This comes in handy when none of the voice
lines are in use - all channels can revert to carrying data traffic, giving the
end-use a full 1.5 MBPS of broadband. Each phone call requires only 64K of bandwidth,
so even a small handful of calls only slows down the data connection by a nominal
amount.
Given the fact that many companies still to this day have yet to make the change to digital
SIP-trunking enabled dynamic T1s, one must ask why the delay? The value proposition that
dynamic adds and the economic benefits are there, however, the technology is slow to be
adopted by mainstream corporations. One reason for this lag is the bad reputation that
telecom companies have built for themselves through the meltdown of the industry from
2000 to 2003, when many companies either went out of business, merged with other larger
companies, or just hunkered down and weathered the storm. Now that the industry has made
great strides to stabilize by offering better rates, better products, and better customer
service, small business owners are gradually starting to listen to the presentations being
made by consultants and inside sales agents. With that increase in confidence, and with
the growing number of testimonials being offered by happy customers, businesses are becoming
less reluctant to make the jump.
"What we're seeing here is the Bells holding their prices steady and milking their high
margins on POTS (plain old telephone service) lines for as long as possible. With the
lower prices being offered by CLECs (Competitive Local Exchange Carriers) on dynamic
integrated T-carrier services, the Bells are scrambling to keep pace before enterprises
realize they can actually save money by upgrading to bigger and more reliable circuits."
commented Don Rosebush, industry expert.
According to a recent study conducted by PK Communications Telecom Brokers Inc., the average
cost of a POTS (plain old telephone service) line serviced by the Bells (AT&T, Verizon,
and Qwest) have changed very little over the 10 year span from 1996, the year the
Clinton Administration signed into law the Telecommunications Act, to 2006. The real
change in the industry came in the T-carrier class of products, where customers can
get up to 1.5 Mbps of bandwidth and 24 digital phone lines all in one package. Some
CLECs like XO, TelePacific, Nuvox, One Communications, and even Covad are now offering
rates well below the $550/month level, making the change seem like a no-brainer to
thousands of customers.
With any new advancement in technology there is usually a lag in the time it take
users known as "early adapters" to try out and begin using the new services themselves.
Although dynamic T1 service has been available in many US markets since 2005, it's
just now that we have observed people beginning to embrace the new technology. One
such business that recently changed from a voice PRI and data T1 line on to one,
dynamic T1 line is Jason Oliver, a small business owner in Los Angeles, California.
"When I found out that I could replace my two T1's with one single dynamic integrated
circuit (offered by TelePacific Communications), I had two thoughts: 1- where do I
sign, and 2- why didn't someone tell me about this sooner!"
Recent advances in technology, fostered by competition from growing CLECs, is bringing
integrated T1 services to small business everywhere. And the trend doesn't look like
it will change anytime soon. CLECs continue to grow their networks, offering more
advanced services like metro ethernet, MPLS, and more. 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.
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Courtesy of ShopforT1.com
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
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.
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.
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.
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