DS3 and Fractional DS3 Broadband

In the quest to upgrade bandwidth, companies have generally turned to DS3 bandwidth service. Here is what DS3 is all about and the different technologies used to provide DS3 and similar mid-level bandwidth services.

DS3 stands for Digital Signal 3, a standardized switched circuit TDM telecom service. As a refresher, DS0 is the basic building block at 64 Kbps. That’s one channel of digitized telephone call. DS1 is a bundle of 24 DS0 channels at 1.5 Mbps. You are probably more familiar with its implementation as a line service called T1. DS3 is the next step up at 45 Mbps. It’s a bundle of 672 DS0 channels as a large telephone trunk or 28 T1 lines multiplexed together for transport. When you order a T3 line, you are getting the line service implementation of DS3.

Even though DS1 and DS3 were originally conceived as telephone company technologies, they are more often used to transport data packets today. That includes private point to point lines and dedicated Internet connections. In these applications, the entire payload is used to transport data packets.

A full DS3 circuit will give you 45 Mbps bandwidth in both the upload and download directions. This is the most common service ordered and is readily available nationwide. You’ll need an interface card for your router to connect to a DS3 termination. There are two interconnect cables, one for transmit (upload) and one for receive (download). They are 75 ohm coax, similar to what you’ll find for Cable TV connections, although the specified cable type is Bellcore 734 or 735 for this application. The connectors are type BNC. You’ll find these on the router interface card. There may be more than one pair if the router can handle multiple DS3 connections.

At this point, you might be imagining coaxial cables stretched from your building back to the telephone central office, like the twisted pairs used for T1 and multi-line telephone service. In practice, the coaxial connection is only used for short distances. The DS3 bandwidth itself is most often delivered over a SONET fiber optic cable, where it is demultiplexed and dropped off at your premises.

DS3 bandwidth may be higher than you require. There’s a big gap between T1 line bandwidth at 1.5 Mbps and DS3 at 45 Mbps. Companies often begin scaling up their bandwidth by bonding multiple T1 lines to double or triple the individual line bandwidth. This works up to about 10 or 12 Mbps in most cases. Let’s say you only need 20 or 30 Mbps right now. What do you do?

One option is to order fractional DS3 service. A full DS3 interface is installed, but the line bandwidth is limited to the fractional amount you order. That could be 15, 20 or 30 Mbps. You can possibly save money this way, but not necessarily. The reason is that full DS3 is more of a standard service that is readily available. The fractional services are a special order that may or may not be available in a particular location, depending on the service provider. In the end, it might make the most economic sense to get a full DS3 connection.

There are other technical options in this bandwidth range that compete with fractional and even full DS3. The most popular is Ethernet over Copper. This is a highly scalable service that competes with T1 at the 1.5, 2, and 3 Mbps levels. You can also get 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 50, and sometimes even 100 Mbps Ethernet over Copper. This lets you match your budget more closely to the bandwidth you require. Ethernet over Copper (EoC) is often less expensive than either T1 or DS3 for similar bandwidths, although not as readily available as yet.

Downtown in major business districts you may also find fixed wireless bandwidth services. These often deliver DS3 bandwidths, but perhaps in an Ethernet protocol. Most of the time that’s what you want anyway, since you’ll be connecting to a LAN running Ethernet.

A final option isn’t DS3, but might give you a similar benefit for a lot less money. That’s business class Cable broadband. It is shared, not dedicated, and the bandwidth varies with the amount of user activity. Still, you can get up to 50 or 100 Mbps download with 5 or 10 Mbps upload service for about the price of a T1 line. You’ll need to have the cable passing by your business location for this service to be available. Otherwise the construction costs are prohibitive.

Are you in need of higher bandwidth to support your growing business, additional computerization or a move to cloud services? If so, get pricing and availability for DS3 and fractional DS3 services, plus related bandwidth services that may also meet your needs.

100 Mbps Internet for Business

DS3 Internet bandwidth at 45 Mbps has been the mainstay of many mid-size businesses. It is readily available and a substantial bandwidth increase over T1 or even bonded T1 lines. Now even DS3 bandwidth isn’t enough to keep up with many simultaneous video users or cloud service applications. It’s time to move on up to 100 Mbps Internet access.

The 100 Mbps service level is particularly significant because it precisely matches one of the standard Ethernet LAN speeds called “Fast” Ethernet. Most all NICs (Network Interface Cards) built into nearly everything from PCs to routers, switches and printers support 10/100 Mbps Ethernet. That’s the 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps network speeds. Newer NICs expand that to include Gigabit Ethernet or GigE with 10/100/1000 Mbps ports.

The point is that if your LAN is running at 100 Mbps and you connect to the Internet at some lower speed, you are going to experience a slowdown on anything to or from the Internet. At low network activity levels, you may not notice the difference. It’s when there are lots users doing lots of things simultaneously that the congestion occurs. The big choke point, more often than not, is the WAN or wide area network connection to the Internet.

Fortunately, 100 Mbps Internet service for businesses is more available and less expensive than ever before. Let’s take a look at the different technical approaches and their advantages or disadvantages.

The traditional 100 Mbps telecom service is OC-3, which actually runs at about 155 Mbps. This is a SONET fiber optic service offered by switched circuit telecom companies nationwide. OC-3 is a transport service that can carry anything from thousands of telephone calls to private point to point connections to dedicated Internet access. It’s also often used to deliver lower speed services, such as DS3. You probably don’t think of DS3 as a fiber optic service because your connection is through BNC connectors on small diameter coaxial cables. Still, it’s likely dropped off at your location using an add/drop multiplexer connected to a SONET fiber cable.

OC-3 has the advantage of being a well established and highly popular digital line service. It comes with an SLA or Service Level Agreement, standard in the telecom industry. Your bandwidth is both dedicated and symmetrical. Dedicated means that you don’t share that 155 Mbps with any other company or individual users. Whatever bandwidth you aren’t using at the moment sits there idling so that you always have the full 155 Mbps at your disposal. Symmetrical means that you have 155 Mbps in both the upload and download directions. Sometimes this is expressed as 155 x 155 Mbps Internet access.

Competing directly with OC-3 bandwidth is Carrier Ethernet. Fast Ethernet at 100 Mbps is an easy interface to your LAN. All you need to do is plug in a standard RJ-45 patch cable and your router has Internet access. There’s no need for fiber optic cabling and special interface cards like you have with OC-3 or a managed OC-3 router installed by the service provider. Like OC-3, 100 Mbps FAST Ethernet is both symmetrical and dedicated. It also comes with an SLA from the provider.

Fast Ethernet service is available over both fiber optic and twisted pair connections. In fairness, the Ethernet over Copper service at this speed is fairly distance limited so you’ll likely find it only in major metropolitan business districts. Slower speeds, say 10 or 20 Mbps, have a much greater range and are more readily available.

Ethernet over Fiber is similar to OC-3 with two important advantages. First, the cost per Mbps is often lower, even much lower than OC-3 where available. Another advantage is that Carrier Ethernet services are highly scalable. The next increment up from OC-3 is OC-12 at 622 Mbps. With Carrier Ethernet, you could go from 100 Mbps on up to 200, 500 or even 1,000 Mbps without an equipment change. The trick is to have a Gigabit Ethernet port installed initially. Then order the bandwidth you need today with the understanding that you can easily upgrade in the future when you need to.

A final option that is becoming more available is 100 Mbps Cable business broadband. This is a shared asymmetrical bandwidth service sold without service level agreements. It’s very similar to the Cable broadband you get at home, but with extra features such as static IP addresses and special customer support. Your 100 Mbps is in the download direction only. Upload speeds are on the order of 10 Mbps. This bandwidth is shared by many other users, so it varies all over the place even during business hours. Even so, you can’t beat the pricing which is similar to a T1 line. If all you need is casual Internet access for many employees and have a very limited budget, this could be the answer for you.

Are you ready to establish Business Internet service at a new location or upgrade from bonded T1 or DS3 to 100 Mbps or higher Internet access? If so, check 100 Mbps Internet pricing and availability for your business location. Complementary consulting is also available to help you sort through the options.

Broadband Access Wireless Internet Providers

When we think of wireless Internet, the first thing that comes to mind is WiFi hotspots or 3G & 4G cellular broadband. It’s a mobile Internet technology, right? It is, but did you know that there are also wireless Internet services that are appropriate for fixed business locations like offices and retail stores?

One of the lowest cost wireless broadband services uses the same towers and resources that deliver broadband to your cell phone. Only this wireless service offered by Accel Networks is designed for fixed locations. What Accel has done is contract with major wireless carriers to use their bandwidth. By combining the coverage maps of several carriers, Accel can deliver 3G data rates to most locations that need it. You get similar bandwidth to a T1 line for about half the price. Installation is a matter of days, not weeks or months. Service reliability is 99.9% per the service level agreement.

Who is this service right for? It’s perfect for convenience stores, gas stations and other retail locations that need PCI compliant connection to process credit cards. Traditionally, these stores have ordered DSL, Cable broadband or satellite. When you are not on the path for wireline connections this wireless service can give you the bandwidth you need. You can even order it for temporary holiday locations, conventions and conferences, and construction sites.

Cellular broadband isn’t appropriate for applications where you need large amounts of continuous uploading and downloading. But there are fixed wireless services that are designed for just that. These are dedicated connections using directional antennas on special licensed frequencies for this service. The provider installs a small equipment and antenna box on the outside of your building and runs an Ethernet connection inside for your router. Dedicated fixed wireless can give you DS3 levels of bandwidth (45 Mbps) and replace bonded T1 lines and even lower speed fiber optic connections. The one kicker is that you need to be located near the carriers transmitting location, which is almost always downtown in a major metropolitan area.

Satellite is a two-way wireless service that has been popular with businesses that don’t need high bandwidth levels but do need connectivity in locations that have little to no wireline service and perhaps even no cellular service. These satellites are in geosynchronous orbit, just like the ones that deliver satellite TV service. The difference is that they are providing business broadband service. Satellite has the advantage that you can get service just about anywhere in the US where you have clear view of the southern sky and some way to provide electrical power. It doesn’t even have to be from the grid. Solar and batteries will work just fine.

Satellite and 3G cellular services are bandwidth limited and tend to have caps on the amount of data you can upload or download in a given period of time. They tend to have higher latency than wireline services. Geosynchronous satellites, especially, are unsuitable for such applications as VoIP telephony. But many businesses don’t need a broadband telephone service or video conferencing. What they do need is access to the Internet for email, credit card verification, viewing Web sites, using search engines, reporting inventory and ordering supplies, etc. These activities don’t require massive amounts of capacity or very high speeds.

If you have a business application that needs broadband access to the Internet but haven’t been able to find reasonably priced wireline services that meet your need, get prices and availability on broadband access wireless Internet providers that serve your business location.

MAN and MEN - Metropolitan Networking

When your local area network expands beyond the property that you own or lease, what you need is a MAN. That’s MAN as in Metropolitan Area Network. Let’s take a look at what the MAN is all about and how you use one or more to expand your company network.

The idea behind a metro network is that many offices, medical centers, manufacturers, governmental bodies and retailers have multiple locations within the same geographical area. Within a particular building or campus, you are free to install as much wiring as you want. But what happens when you need to get that connection across town?

The legacy answer is to lease point to point dedicated circuits from a telco provider. These can be T1 lines, DS3 for higher bandwidth or very expensive OC3 and above optical connections. Essentially, you create your own metropolitan networks from leased lines and routers that you install and manage.

It turns out that many, many businesses and organizations need this same service. This opens the opportunity for a metro network operator to install the necessary fiber optic cabling, add-drop multiplexers and other equipment to create a publicly available resource that meets the needs of most businesses in the area. By connecting to the MAN instead of building your own network, you can save considerable cost. You’ll also likely have additional resources at your disposal just in case your bandwidth needs suddenly increase.

Metro networks have more inherent security than the Internet in that there is no general public access. The residential users downloading movies and browsing the Internet or looking for mischief have no real need for the MAN and aren’t willing to pony up the price of a connection. Certainly, you have the ability to encrypt any packets you send through the MAN to improve security even further.

Many Metropolitan Area Networks are built from SONET rings, which are fiber optic networks organized as rings with many access points. Usually there are at least two fiber rings sending traffic in opposite directions. The idea is that if one strand fails, the other redundant strand will maintain the network. A ring arrangement is a good fit with most metro needs. The ring circles the business district and includes important industrial parks, hospital campuses, office complexes and the like.

The newest development is MEN as a specific type of MAN. MEN stands for Metropolitan Ethernet Network. This network is based on the Ethernet protocol, although it may be running on a SONET core network or a native IP network. As a user, you are able to get Ethernet service in the metro area.

What makes Ethernet so desirable? Metro Ethernet is based on standards established by the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) so that you know what to expect when you order a particular Ethernet service. There are two services of particular interest to most business users. The first is E-Line which is a private dedicated point to point connection between two locations. You use E-line the same way you’d use a T1 line, except that you have many more bandwidth options and the price per Mbps is often much lower than traditional telecom services.

The other service of note is E-LAN, a private LAN service. But you already have a LAN, right? Not like this one. E-LAN is a metro network version of the LAN. It connects the individual LANs at each of your metro locations to make one large bridged LAN connecting all of them in a layer 2 meshed network. It’s as if all those different buildings were really just different departments in the same building.

How do you connect to the MAN? Typical methods include T1 lines, DS3 and OC3 or OC12 fiber last mile connections. However, if you want to take advantage of Ethernet services like E-LAN, you’ll need EFM or Ethernet in the First Mile. You can use Ethernet over Copper for bandwidths from 1 to 100 Mbps. Higher speeds require Gigabit Ethernet or 10 GigE fiber optic service.

In some downtown areas, there is such as thing as a fixed wireless MAN. This is different from 3G and 4G cellular wireless intended for smartphones. Fixed wireless operates on private licensed frequencies with directional transmission from the service provider to all-weather terminal equipment mounted to the roof of each customer. High speeds, excellent security and fast installation characterize fixed wireless MAN.

What type of metro networking will work best for your business or organization? The best way to evaluate your choices is to get a list of available services and pricing for Metropolitan Area Networks serving your location.

D3 vs DS3 Bandwidth Choices

Medium and larger size companies have long chosen DS3 services to obtain the bandwidth they need for broadband Internet access. Now there’s a new player in the marketplace that is looking to complement if not displace the venerable DS3 connection.

If you need business bandwidth higher than you can get by bonding T1 lines, you already know about DS3. But how much do you know about D3?

D3 is short for DOCSIS 3.0, a cable broadband standard that gives HFC (Hybrid Fiber Cable) systems a capability that rivals fiber to the premises. It is now possible to get 50 Mbps for business use from cable systems in many cities. Some have 100 Mbps available and more will have that service offering soon. DOCSIS 3.0 can provide 152 Mbps, with even higher speeds possible. Compare that with DS3 at 45 Mbps and you can see why there is a natural competition between the services.

The raw bandwidth specs don’t tell the whole story, however. D3 and DS3 are different technologies with different characteristics. You may find that one or both of these services make sense for your business.

DS3 stands for Digital Signal, level 3. It was developed as part of the T-Carrier specification by Bell Labs for use by the telephone companies to transport up to 672 simultaneous telephone calls between phone company switching centers. When provisioned over coaxial copper lines, it is called T3 line service. If you suspect that T3 is related to T1, you are right. A T3 line can transport the equivalent of 28 T1 lines on its higher bandwidth.

DOCSIS 3.0 has a Cable TV rather than a telephone company heritage. The DOCSIS standard was developed by CableLabs (Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.) with contributions from other companies serving the cable industry. If you have Cable broadband, you are using a DOCSIS modem. It’s only a question of which version you are using. The original was DOCSIS 1.0, which has been supplanted by DOCSIS 1.1, DOCSIS 2.0 and now DOCSIS 3.0.

DS3 is based on multiplexing 672 channels of 64 Kbps each to create total bandwidth of 43 Mbps. Add the necessary synchronization and control bits and you have a bandwidth of 44.736 Mbps. Why so many channels? Each of those 64K channels is just the right size to carry one telephone call. That’s the telco heritage of DS3. Combine all the channels into one large pipe and you have nearly 45 Mbps of digital bandwidth.

D3 is also based on channels. In this case, each channel is 6 MHz wide. That’s the width of one television channel. Everything on a cable system is treated as a TV channel, so broadband services have to fit into those channels to get through the amplifiers and wiring on the system without interfering with any other channels. A 6 MHz channel can transport a 38 Mbps broadband signal in one direction. Cable operators bond channels together to get higher bandwidths. With 4 bonded channels, DOCSIS 3.0 can deliver a download speed of 152 Mbps.

So, are D3 and DS3 the same beyond their different technology heritages? Not really. The telco heritage of DS3 means that it is a dedicated symmetrical bandwidth service. You get 45 Mbps in both the upload and download directions. That bandwidth never varies. It is called dedicated because it is completely dedicated to your needs. Anytime you don’t use the full 45 Mbps, it just sits there and idles while waiting for more data.

D3 is an asymmetrical shared bandwidth service. You get different speeds in the upload and download directions. Download is faster to reflect the fact that most users download more content from the Internet than they upload. Typical business bandwidth services are 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload or 100 Mbps download with 10 Mbps upload. This bandwidth is shared among many users on the system. Thus, you may experience your access speed varying all over the place depending on what other users are doing. If a lot of them are downloading movies or big software updates, everyone’s speed will be slowed.

DS3 service is generally sold with an SLA or Service Level Agreement that describes the expected performance and availability of the service, plus remedies if the provider doesn’t deliver as promised. D3 is a “best effort” service with no specific performance guarantees. Even so, it is in the provider’s best interest to provide adequate resources and service availability to keep the customers happy.

The difference in services are most dramatic when you look at the pricing. You might pay several thousand dollars a month for DS3 service with an SLA. D3 will probably cost you a tenth of that, with no guarantees. Which will work for your needs depends on if the cable system passes your business and if you can live with the variations in performance and lack of guarantees. Some companies have DS3 or even T1 lines installed for their mission critical or performance sensitive applications and D3 for general Internet access and low cost backup to their telecom services.

Are DS3, D3 or both bandwidth services right for your company? Why not talk to an expert consultant that can provide you with prices and availability of DS3, D3, and other broadband options for your business needs? There is no charge for this helpful service and you may be able to realize a considerable cost savings while achieving the same or better network performance as you have now.

Reduce Expense of T3 or DS3

You currently have or are considering 45 Mbps service using T3 or DS3. Before you re-sign or initiate a new contract, take a look at how you might save considerable expense in the process.

T3 and DS3 are often considered to be identical. They’re not, but they are very close technically. T3 refers to a specific T-carrier system created by Bell Labs. It can transport 45 Mbps of data in both directions (full duplex) or 672 telephone conversations. Do you have a T1 line now? It is part of the same T-carrier system. A T3 line can carry 28 T1 lines, to give you an idea about how much bandwidth 45 Mbps represents.

DS3 is the digital signal that rides on a T3 line. It is the specification that describes how you get all those telephone calls or T1 lines worth of data into that particular format of data stream. In other words, a physical T3 line transports a DS3 formatted digital signal. Sounds almost redundant until you learn that there are other ways to transport that DS3 signal. Most important is using a compatible fiber optic SONET connection. OC3, the lowest level of SONET fiber service generally available, runs at 156 Mbps and can transport three independent DS3 signals. A service provider might drop off one at your locations and another down the block. Or you might order an OC3 and break out the 3 streams yourself if you need that much bandwidth.

How, exactly, you get DS3 service to your PBX phone system or network router depends on what service providers in your area are offering. In dense metropolitan locations you may be able to get DS3 service via fixed wireless microwave connection, as well as fiber optic cable and perhaps coaxial copper wire. You’ll connect from the carrier’s termination to your DS3 router using a pair of copper coaxial jumper cables.

The fact that there are different delivery mechanisms for DS3 is one key to being able to reduce your telecom line expense. Not too long ago, the local telephone company was the only one offering this service. Now there are competitive carriers, each with their own fiber or wireless networks, who aggressively pursue high bandwidth customers. That has tended to drop the cost of DS3 service dramatically in recent years.

If you don’t specifically need DS3, but only the bandwidth level that DS3 can provide, there is another option you should seriously consider. That is metro or carrier Ethernet. At the 45 Mbps level, Ethernet may be delivered to your location by either fiber optic line or bundled copper pair. The copper solution only works within a short distance of the carrier’s nearest point of presence. But not everyone needs the full 45 Mbps. If your requirement is, say, 20 Mbps, then you may be able to get EoC or Ethernet over Copper over a wider area than is available for 45 Mbps service. You’ll also pay less, since Ethernet is priced per Mbps.

Ethernet is also a good choice for companies that have an immediate and anticipated need for more than 45 Mbps. It is a scalable service, so you can get 50 Mbps now and upgrade to 100 or 200 Mbps later without a major effort. Ethernet at these levels is delivered by fiber optic cabling. Fiber support an almost unlimited bandwidth capacity. Ethernet services are readily available at 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet, 1,000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet and 10 GigE.

Does your organization have a need for increased bandwidth or would you like to check competitive prices before you commit to a new contract? Our Telarus consultants will be happy to get you a listing of bandwidths and pricing for DS3, Ethernet and other bandwidth services available for your location. As a bandwidth broker, Telarus works with dozens of carriers and can get you more competitive pricing than you could hope to get on your own. Best of all, this is a complementary service for all serious business applications.

MPLS VPN Access Solutions

You’re convinced that an MPLS networking solution is the answer to connecting your geographically diverse business locations. But just how are you going to connect to the MPLS cloud from all those locations?

What you need is individual access networks for each location that will connect to the ingress tag router serving that geographical area. Right now the most popular connection technology is the venerable T1 line. Why? Because T1 lines are almost universally available, highly reliable, private, symmetrical, and relatively high bandwidth. Relatively means 1.5 Mbps in both the upload and download directions. For many businesses that exchange data files and even some voice traffic, this may be enough line speed. That’s especially true for branch offices and retail locations that simply need to connect to headquarters. But some applications may be limited by a 1.5 Mbps ceiling.

The next thing you can do is take advantage of T1 bonding to increase access line speed. T1 lines are readily combined, or bonded, to double, triple or otherwise expand bandwidth. There’s a practical limit of around 10 or 12 Mbps for this approach, but that can be more than adequate for many needs. Even video and medical image transmission can get by with this level of bandwidth as long as demands aren’t too high.

What if you need higher bandwidth levels to access your MPLS network? DS3 is still a good intermediate level solution at 45 Mbps. It’s a mature technology and available in many areas, no not nearly as prolific as T1 when you get beyond the metropolitan and suburban cores.

How about Ethernet as an access solution? Metro and Carrier Ethernet services are highly popular for a number of reasons. First, costs are often lower and sometimes much lower than traditional last mile connections for the amount of bandwidth you are ordering. For instance, it is not uncommon to get 3 Mbps Ethernet service for the same price as a 1.5 Mbps T1 line. 10 Mbps Ethernet is probably the most popular choice for new connections. It is priced attractively and available in most metro areas.

Another feature of Ethernet access services are that they are readily scalable up to the capability of the installed port. You may well start out at 3 Mbps but then find you need to double or triple that as business activity picks up at a particular location. No problem. A simple phone call to your service provider may be all you need to get that location upgraded. That can happen rapidly and independently of connection speeds at other locations.

If you are originating and terminating Ethernet packets, it only makes sense to use Ethernet connections to access the MPLS network. The network itself can easily transport Ethernet as well as other protocols. This gives you the option to keep everything in the Ethernet protocol and perhaps even create a multi-location LAN for ease of network management.

Higher bandwidth access connections, such as DS3 or Fast Ethernet, require fiber optic connections. With your building lit for fiber, you may be able to scale your bandwidth up to OC3, OC12, or OC48 SONET levels or GigE and 10 GigE Ethernet.

What type of MPLS VPN access connections do you need to support your multiple locations? Explore the complete range of options available to you now as MPLS VPN Access Solutions.

Finding An Ethernet Internet Provider

You’ve heard that Ethernet Internet service offers advantages over traditional telecom services, such as T1 lines and DS3 bandwidth. But where do you go to find an Ethernet Internet provider? You go right here...



The Ethernet Internet Finder is your one-stop service for locating Ethernet Internet providers and getting competitive service quotes. It’s affiliated with Telarus, Inc., the renowned telecom services broker, and connects to their patented GeoQuote software and suite of expert consultants. All you do is enter some basic company contact information and you are good to go. Try to enter the main telephone number at the business rather than a cell phone, as the system uses this information to help find service availability and pricing.

Don’t worry about getting charged for any of this. The Ethernet Internet Finder is free to use for any serious business purpose. The friendly consultants will go over the range of services available for your location and make recommendations for how you can get the most bandwidth for the least cost. Yes, you need a location that is listed for business use for this to work. If you are working from a home office or want residential service, we recommend “Can I Get DSL?” to find your best options for DSL, Cable, 4G wireless, fiber to the home, and satellite broadband.

In case you are not familiar with Ethernet Internet access, this is a fairly new bandwidth service that is growing by leaps and bounds. It provides an Ethernet connection from your local area network, which is already running Ethernet, to the Internet, which is highly compatible with Ethernet. Traditional telecom connections were designed to transport telephone calls and are not as efficient as what’s known as Metro or Carrier Ethernet. There are also many new providers who specialize in Ethernet and IP networks that are anxious to compete for your business.

As a result, you can generally save money when you switch to Ethernet Internet service. How much? It’s not unusual to get twice the bandwidth for the same cost using Ethernet at 3 Mbps vs a T1 line at 1.5 Mbps. The higher the bandwidth, the lower the price per Mbps.

Also, new Ethernet over Copper (EoC) technology can deliver 10 Mbps Ethernet connections to your business using existing twisted pair copper wiring. You don’t necessarily have to bring in new fiber optic service to get the bandwidth you need. How much bandwidth can you get and for what cost? The easy way to find out is to use the Ethernet Internet Finder now.

Price Your Telecom Lines Before You Move

If you are in the process of relocating your business or starting up a new venture, you’ll be in the market for new telecommunications services. That could be telephone, data, video streaming or some combination of these. You’re probably aware that the lease price for professional telecom services is not a standard price, but varies with your business location. So it stands to reason that you should pick your business location to minimize telecom expenses.

What? Nobody chooses their business address based on what bandwidth services cost... do they?

Well, if they don’t they should. Of course, other considerations such as the amount of drive by and foot traffic are probably more important to a retail location than how much the Internet connection costs. But even the price of a simple T1 line can more than double if you decide to locate in some picturesque locale that has no infrastructure.

If we’re only talking few hundred dollars a month, line lease costs will probably take a back seat to other factors. But, still, if you have a couple of suitable locations in mind and are looking for some tie-breaker to help you choose, why not price out your telecom services and see if the difference is significant?

Where you really get into the big bucks is when you are going to lease major amounts of bandwidth. Perhaps you are building a new data center or developing content for motion picture companies. You can easily be looking as DS3 (45 Mbps), OC3 (155 Mbps), or even Gigabit Ethernet (1000 Mbps). These are pricey bandwidth services that may cost as much as your monthly rent... or more. It’s definitely worth the trouble of comparing costs for each address you are considering.

Even more importantly, you may find that many out-of-the-way locations are really bandwidth limited. You can likely get T1 service (1.5 Mbps) at any business location. You may even be able to bond T1 lines to double or triple that. But if you are looking for 10, 45, 100 or more Mbps, where you are located may well determine if you can even get service.

The higher bandwidths require fiber optic connections, which are common in major metropolitan areas and less available as you leave the suburbs. Even in the city, you want to be in or near a building that is already lit for fiber. If not, you may have to budget some serious construction costs to have the fiber cable trenched into your location. Downtown, you may be lucky enough to get EoC or Ethernet over Copper if you are near a carrier office. That can get you up to 45 Mbps without fiber construction costs.

Do you have a need for high bandwidth voice, data or video telecom services? Let our Telarus expert consultants run some numbers on the locations you have in mind so you can compare costs and factor that into your decision. It a complementary service for serious business users.