T1 Internet Service Prices and Rates Quotes in Strong City

CLECs Gain Ground with SMBs

Thursday November 24, 2011, 03:54 pm ET

DRAPER, Utah, Nov. 24 /Patrick Oborn/ -- Is there a resurgence in the popularity of telecommunications providers that compares with the late 1990's? The answer may surprise you. Since the crash of the Internet bubble, struggling telecoms have seen Darwin in action as many companies were forced with the choice of bankruptcy or forced consolidation. However, some companies chose the road less traveled: innovation. By offering customers more for less, many small to medium size business customers are finding that they can upgrade to integrated T1 service for the same cost of five regular phone lines.

Prior to the advent of the "all digital" integrated T-1 in 2005, customers only had one choice when it came to dedicated service: analog trunks (24 line bundles). Not only where analog trunks expensive - the average cost ranging from $800 to $1500 per month depending on the user's geographic proximity to the LECs point of presence - they could not re-allocate unused voice channels to carry data. Digital trunks, on the other hand, can reclaim voice lines not in use and put them to work carrying high-speed data packets. That means users enjoy the full 1.5 Mbps of broadband when they are not on the phone.

There are two basic "integrated" DS-1 configurations, analog and digital. The 24-line bundle in which they come is termed a "trunk". The main difference between analog and digital trunks is their flexibility. With digital trunks, voice lines not in use can be dynamically reconfigured to carry data traffic, so they don't sit idle. Analog trunks on the other hand can not change their function once configured by the service provider. Data channels remain data channels and the same for voice channels, even if there is no voice traffic.

The old-school integrated T-1 was analog in nature, and came with 24 configurable channels (called a trunk) which could be configured to carry either voice or data traffic. The new "dynamic" trunks are all-digital and can change on-the-fly to carry either data or voice traffic. This comes in handy when none of the voice lines are in use - all channels can revert to carrying data traffic, giving the end-use a full 1.5 MBPS of broadband. Each phone call requires only 64K of bandwidth, so even a small handful of calls only slows down the data connection by a nominal amount.

But how much longer will we continue to see improved technology, services, and prices? It's all in the hands of the Federal Communications Commission, as they have the power to sqwash the CLECs by proxy. No wonder AT&T and Verizon are the two biggest lobbying powers in Washington. It makes you wonder what kind of services they would be able to offer had they plowed that money into R&D instead of politics. 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.