T1 Internet Service Prices and Rates Quotes in Whitefield

Prices Continue to Come Down on Integrated Products

Thursday January 05, 2012, 05:05 am ET

DRAPER, Utah, Jan. 05 /Patrick Oborn/ -- Small businesses all over the country are discovering a whole new universe of broadband access. As the price of commercial-grade telecommunication services continues to drop, more and more enterprises are starting to drop their plain old telephone service lines in favor of all-digital T1 trunks that deliver voice and data over the same connection. These new enhancements were made possible by the increasing pace of consolidation in the telecommunication industry along with the increasing value bigger phone companies can provide.

"What we're seeing here is the Bells holding their prices steady and milking their high margins on POTS (plain old telephone service) lines for as long as possible. With the lower prices being offered by CLECs (Competitive Local Exchange Carriers) on dynamic integrated T-carrier services, the Bells are scrambling to keep pace before enterprises realize they can actually save money by upgrading to bigger and more reliable circuits." commented Don Rosebush, industry expert.

Integrated T1s comes in two basic configurations: digital and analog trunks, with a trunk being a 24-line (or channel) bundle. The newer, digital trunks, however, are able to run both voice and data over the same channels. By assigning priority to the voice traffic whenever it is present, a dynamic integrated trunk can provide the end-user with a full 1.5 MBPS of data throughput if no phone calls are in progress. As more voice lines are required, less data lines are available. Analog trunks are all pre-assigned to either voice or data traffic, and do not reconfigure in the event there is no voice traffic.

"The average cost of a business phone line from the Local Bell Operating Company (ILEC) has remained constant for the past ten years" noted Edwin Jones, a senior market analyst and telecom industry expert. "At the same time the prices of T-1 lines have declined from near $1000 per month to a staggering $350. Keeping in mind that a T1 connection is the equivalent of 24 regular phone lines all bundled into one, it comes as no surprise that demand for these services in on the rise."

As the competitive local exchange carriers continue to compete by introducing new and exciting products at prices most small businesses can afford, they are coming up against increasing resistance from the RBOCs who are forces to lease their own copper lines to these CLECs at reduced rates. This reality has the CLECs rushing to deploy their own networks and fiber routes, but the FCC may ultimately relax the mandate - leaving all of us wondering how long the party is going to last. Evolution has lead to a better, cheaper alternative to TDM services that the Bells were peddling for decades in a vacuum of competition. Now the industry, lead by the innovation and great business practices of the CLECs, seems to have turned a corner - leaving the incumbents playing catchup. Obviously, the main benefactor of all of this competition is the small to medium size business - a segment of the market that was taken for granted until today.