subject: Will T1 Line Bandwidth Resolve My Business Bandwidth Problems? [print this page] If you are not familiar with technology, you may think that T1 line bandwidth is fast. The truth about T1 is that is in a legacy technology and very slow by data transfer standards of today.
To understand T1 technology, it must be broken down. A T1 is the combination of 24 standard phone lines. Each phone line has a transfer rate of 64 kilobits (not to be confused with kilobytes) of throughput each second. When all 24 lines are used simultaneously, that gives the user 1.5 megabits of data transfer per second.
Is 1.5 megabits per second fast? Not by the standards of today. Cable and DSL companies in the United States are offering speeds exceeding 16 megabits per second down (downloading) and 2 megabits up (uploading). Outside of the United States, some countries have already exceeded 100 megabits per second down and 20 megabits per second up.
And with phone service, many companies are switching to, or have already switched to, voice over internet protocol, or VOIP. Compression technology has allowed for more voice data to be transferred over the internet than what traditional phone lines can offer. This saves companies considerable amounts of money.
Are there any benefits to having T1 line bandwidth? Not really. A few years ago, a T1 line had the advantage of upload speeds. The reasoning for this is that T1 allows the signal to travel equally both ways, up and down. With cable and DSL, the signal is stronger down and weaker up because most people download more than they upload. Nowadays, the upload speeds of cable and DSL have dwarfed the speeds of T1 running at full capacity.
The only potential advantage that T1 has over cable and DSL is that a T1 line is a dedicated circuit. But even that advantage does not hold much weight. With DSL or cable, you share your bandwidth the multiple other customers. During peak times, you may lose considerable amounts of speed. With T1 the circuit is only for you. However, with DSL and cable speeds being as fast as they are, even when they are running slowly, their speeds still exceed those of T1.
You may be tempted to consider multiple T1 lines. This is possible, but costly. You can have as many T1 lines as providers have available if you can pay for it. If you own a large business, this may be an option. If you own a small business, you would be better with cable or DSL. If this is not fast enough, you can consider bonded DSL and cable, which will dramatically increase speeds.
T1 line bandwidth was an awesome, blazing fast technology about a decade ago. Now it is very slow compared to our standards. Unless you own a large business that needs to take advantage to its limited upsides, just steer clear of it.
by: Terrence Thomas.
welcome to Insurances.net (https://www.insurances.net)
