Tuesday August 26, 2008,
09:34 pm ET
Osage County, Oklahoma, Aug. 26 /Brendan Luna/ --
The way business connect to the digital universe is changing. More and more enterprises are
discovering the new broadband options made available to them through a series of cost cutting
measures by telecommunication providers. With the recent rush to consolidate, more and more
features are being crammed into the current service offerings, which continue to fall in price
bringing products like integrated T1 service into the price range of the vast majority of
small to medium-size businesses.
At $50 to $75 per month, the average small business telephone customer could expect to pay
up to $750 for just 10 regular phone lines, which come with only a standard set of features
such as Voicemail, Caller ID, and Three-way calling. From 2000 to 2005, the cost of a
dynamic integrated T1 line was well over $800, making it an unattractive option from a
pure cost point of view. However, that paradigm has changed with the introduction of
sub-$400/month price plans and features that make the old POTs lines look pre-historic.
"Commercial telecommunication providers were never on my Christmas card list"
commented Jake Chang, a small business owner in Denver, Colorado. "Dealing with them
meant erroneous bills, long wait times when trying to reach customer service, and
taxes I could never understand. Now that we migrated to a dynamic integrated
T1, my phone lines and high speed internet are bundled into one line with super
reliability. Not to mention the fact that XO Communications, a CLEC, treats me
like they actually want my business - not like I'm a pain in the you-know-what."
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!"
"Like Forrest Gump said, finding the right phone service for your business is
like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're going to get" joked
Elizabeth Forest of Detroit, Michigan. "Before finding Cavalier Telephone
through my Telarus agent, I was mislead into signing up for services that weren't
a good fit for my business. Add to that the billing inaccuracies and the hassle
it was to get everything straightened out. My new integrated T1 works flawlessly,
I am able to get full T1 data speeds when no one is on the phone, and I don't
fear opening the bill when it arrives in the mail each month."
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.
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. The only thing that can get in the way of future progress is the law. You know, the one
that requires the RBOCs to lease their local loops to CLECs at a reduced rate so that
the customer can get a dedicated connection between their office and the CLECs' network.
If the FCC decided to lift this requirement, this whole deck of cards could come down
in a hurry, and when it does, you can kiss dynamic integrated T1 service for under $500
good bye!
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Courtesy of ShopforT1.com
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.
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 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.
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.
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