Business T1 connections

Business T1

With the Internet changing our lives forever, we have in more ways than one submitted to the challenges that the internet poses. While the Internet opens up a plethora of opportunities for people and businesses to explore and exploit, the inherent threat in terms of security have become equally significant. Equally important is the competitive threat—if I don’t have a connection that’s as fast and reliable as that of my competitors, I risk losing ground, and possibly customers as well. If you’re a small or medium sized business owner, your biggest concerns would naturally be

• Is every user in my network getting the right amount of access or is sharing not caring enough?
• OK, there’s speed - what about the security of my enterprise and the information it holds?
• Are my users able to get bandwidth when they need it or do we have an everyday bet on when we would get connectivity?
• Are my Internet-based applications responsive enough for my people to stay productive, and for my clients to place orders?

What is a Business T1 Internet Connection?

You may have wondered what a Business T1 really is - here’s the low-down. Before we get to business T1, let’s just spend a couple of minutes trying to understand what a T1 is.

First, a T1 internet connection comprises 24 digital channels or fractions, each capable of carrying 64 kilobytes per second (Kbps) symmetrically, meaning you can upload and download 64 Kilobytes simultaneously, each second. So a ‘Full T1’ with all the 24 channels enabled can give you 64 x 24 = 1536 kilobytes/sec. As an expression of internet connectivity speed, this would be equivalent of 1.5 Mbps (megabits) per second.

A dedicated T1 line gives you, exclusively, either the entire 24 channels or a fraction thereof, where you lease one or more of the 24 channels available per line. A small business for example could lease a full T1 line and share the 24 lines among a hundred concurrent users, without sacrificing browsing speed (of course, unless a good chunk of them are on YouTube or downloading Mp3’s which, is obviously not allowed in most places).

The primary advantage of a Business T1 line is not merely its inherent ability to give you ‘lightning fast’ internet access. By virtue of how your facility is connected to the ISP, via a dedicated cable, there is a significantly reduced Internet Security risk, as well as less risk of slowdowns that would otherwise result from a shared access line.

The added advantages of Business T1 over DSL are greater availability, stringent Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and of course tremendously higher connection speeds.

Business T1 options

Depending on how much bandwidth you need, there are a wide variety of options available for Business T1 users these days.

Fractional T1 connections

As the name suggests, here you lease a fraction of the full T1 line. You can lease anywhere between 1 and 23 of the channels a T1 line can provide. There is however, a break-even point that you calculate—after a certain fraction, it becomes less expensive to just buy the full T1.

While a Full Business T1 line may cost as much as $500 a month, to hire one or two channels can bring the cost down so much, it could be cheaper than a higher-end DSL. Again, its advantages are both cost as well as the security of having a dedicated connection to the ISP.

Full T1 connection

Here again, true to its name a Full T1 line is all 24 channels of the T1 connection dedicated to one recipient (who can always split it into as many channels as required).

For users who need this kind of bandwidth, it’s great to have a Business T1 line as opposed to a few DSL connections.

Bonded T1 connections

Now it gets even better. We may have told you that a T1 line can give you 1.5 Mbps of symmetric data transfer. A bonded T1 connection is an Internet Connection that has multiple T1 lines bonded, behaving like one super internet connection that can provide staggering speeds of up to 6 Mbps. Business that require high data transfer like those having online CRM applications and ERPs that require remote access, IT companies, and most necessarily all eCommerce companies, would need the kind of bandwidth that only a bonded T1 connection can provide.

The cost here again is a huge factor since the alternative to a bonded T1 is a fractional or full T3 connection which can burn very big holes into the pockets of a small or medium sized business. While the options are seemingly endless, there is one option that would best suit your unique needs. With a little research or with a trusted provider, you can get the best that a Business T1 can offer, at a cost that little else can best.