Choosing Business Broadband Technologies

In today’s business environment, it is a given that any business, no matter how small, will need Internet access and telephones, the question is only a matter of how much is required. The wide range of available options may make it challenging for a business to determine precisely what they need, although in any case, it is important to take future needs into account, as well as an analysis of what the access will be used for. For example, a small business that only needs Internet access will have different bandwidth requirements than a small business of the same size that makes heavy use of Web conferencing and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

To start out with, a SOHO operation, typically defined as less than five employees, may do quite well enough with a standard cable or DSL line—the same type of Internet access delivered to the home. These are shared lines, which can be connected to a small, four-point router if needed, to accommodate multiple users.

A potential downside to this type of connection is that, as a shared line, your actual bandwidth may vary depending on how many people on the same circuit are online at the same time. Small businesses that run their own Web servers, or may be deploying transactional databases online, or may be running very bandwidth-intensive applications, may do better with a fractional T1 application. The fractional T1 may well deliver more bandwidth than the business needs, but it will offer the consistency and reliability that some small businesses require.

A small business with between five and 50 employees however, will need a dedicated line, in the form of either a fractional T1 or a full T1 line. A T1 line consists of 24 separate channels, offering the advantage of more reliable, dedicated bandwidth and a service level guarantee. Businesses on the lower end of that scale may opt for a fractional T1 line; larger ones may choose to use multiple T1s or alternately, bonded T1s that are combined for higher bandwidth. Larger businesses with multiple phone lines may also choose to dedicate a T1 line to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), providing for 24 or more phone extensions for each T1.

Businesses choosing broadband will also be faced with both T1 and T3 options, and the difference is that a T1 offers 1.5Mbps both upstream and downstream, while the T3 offers 45Mbps. Although more always sounds like better, most small businesses with routine Internet requirements will be quite satisfied with the lower-cost T1 line. Businesses that have very heavy Internet use, or may be running a high-capacity server, however, may do better with a T3 line.

Much larger enterprise-class businesses may require more than the T1 or even T3 can deliver, and may opt for SONET services, which is delivered via a fiber optic cable and offers higher speeds and a high degree of reliability and uptime. A basic OC-1 SONET line will deliver 51.84Mbps, and is approximately equal to a T3 line in terms of capacity; OC-3 offers 155.52Mbps. Multiples are also offered for higher speeds, with the highest level being OC-768. The SONET offerings do offer a great deal more in terms of speed and capacity, but they are substantially more expensive.

Deciding when to move to the next level may be a straightforward analysis of your capacity requirements. If you are pushing the limits of your T1 line for example, multiple T1 lines may be the most appropriate solution as opposed to a T3. But although you can deploy as many T1 lines as you like, there is a break-even point after which it makes more sense to move to a T3, and typically, once you reach six T1 lines, it makes sense financially to move to a single T3 line instead of adding more T1s. A single T3 line is equal to 28 T1 lines—so even if you don’t need the full bandwidth available from the T3, it may still be more affordable when you get to that level of multiple T1s. Keep in mind too, just as you can purchase fractional T1s, you can also purchase fractional T3s.

For a business with multiple sites, an option is a point-to-point T1 line, which in itself does not provide Internet access, but is used rather as a conduit between two points that can be used to share bandwidth or phone lines.

An increasingly popular option is Metro Ethernet, which provides a viable option for businesses needing high-speed broadband. Metro Ethernet offers an advantage of very high performance and reliability, and many of the same features of SONET without the expense. Small businesses may deploy a Metro Ethernet connection to the central carrier’s service; while very large enterprises businesses may choose to deploy their own Metropolitan Area Network to connect multiple installations, such as college campuses or government agency offices. If Metro Ethernet service is available from a local carrier, it may be a more economical option for large enterprises, depending on circumstances; as it offers extremely high reliability, and the bandwidth required for major installations.

Regardless of the size of the business, a major consideration in choosing the type of broadband is the anticipated service. In advance of making a selection, a business should conduct a needs analysis to determine what type of traffic will be sent over the network (data, voice, video), how many users there will be, and whether VoIP will be a factor and if so, how many lines. To some degree, over-provisioning is expected and is standard practice, although excessive over-provisioning is not necessary, since in most cases, scalability is available from the carrier without having to undergo any major inconvenience. The major factors in deciding the level of broadband for the business include: