T1 Lines Versus DSL Internet

Which Service Is The Better Choice For Your Business?

by Jon Norwood - October 20th, 2006

DSL is one of the top two consumer broadband Internet access choices. Used by more than 50 million Americans, DSL has become a common technology that has been fully embraced by a satisfied marketplace. DSL has been so successful in fact many businesses have turned to it for networked Internet access for an entire office. This type of business service has been relegated to Telcos and their T1 offerings for years.

So the question has become, what is better for business Internet access, a DSL line or a T1? To answer this we will look at both services and compare.

DSL Internet Access For Business

DSL Internet for business uses the same technology that the residential service utilizes. A digital line along with compression protocols is used to get faster throughput with uploads at around 256k and downloads all the way up to 3MB depending upon location. The business service suffers from distance in the same way residential access does, although filters and signal amplifiers can be used to help out in this regard. If the business is too far from the central Telco office however, service will be spotty and the number of users it can support will decrease, as will the throughput speeds.

DSL Business Internet pricing is reasonable for what it offers, and its not too far beyond residential prices. Ranging from around $69 all the way up to $300 dollars per month, this bandwidth is affordable and the hardware is inexpensive. The price increase includes an increase in bandwidth as well as total data throughput, so if your business plans on sending and receiving more than 40GB per month, the higher end services are what you need.

Networking DSL connections is a simple process, and most DSL providers do support this. In an office environment networking will be essential, not only for Internet access but also file and printer sharing. Althought he hardware needed to set this up is not a part of the DSL price, the router and hubs should only cost around $300.

A detractor from DSL service is that there is no guarantee that the service won't lag with the addition of new users. Most DSL providers will tell you that a single DSL business line shouldn't support more than 20 people, although a more realistic number would be around 10. Even with 10 users, there will be slowdowns if everyone is transferring data.

Dedicated T1 Internet Service

T1s are large pipes used to transport digital voice and data signals from a business location to the respective media requested. This service can hand a great deal of bandwidth, both voice and data, and has 24 fixed channels to send information over. T1s were used exclusively by phone companies to carry voice traffic until the huge increase in Internet traffic in the mid 1990's.

Businesses can now lease a full T1 that will provide 1.54 MB of connectivity with the flexibility to assign the available channels to voice or data. This is guaranteed throughput that can support up to 50 users comfortably, with each user having their own bandwidth so as not to slow down other users.

From a technical standpoint, a T1 shouldn't be managed in house as the phone company will be the only ones that can really set up and configure it. This can be good and bad depending on how often you wish to make changes to the line. These changes do not include adding or removing users, which can be done by a network administrator at any time with little to no trouble.

From a pricing standpoint the T1 is a great deal more expensive than DSL. Ranging between $599 up to $2000 per month, with a set up fee that varies between free and $500 the cost of the T1 will be prohibitive to smaller businesses. With the guaranteed bandwidth and associated features, the service is well worth the price.

In comparison, it would seem that for an office of 10 or fewer employees DSL is the way to go. When the number of users begins to grow beyond 15 however, the additional cost of the T1 becomes well worth it.

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For more information about ADSL / SDSL connections, or to compare various ISPs that offer DSL service, check our listing of DSL Internet Providers to see what is available.