T1 Service Provider

Shopping for a T1 Line

T1 Internet service provides a dedicated T1 line between your location and your T1 Internet Service Provider's data center, bypassing the often crowded connections shared by DSL and cable customers. It's the difference between crawling through rush hour traffic on surface streets to reach the high-speed freeway versus having your own private on-ramp.

Security is a big difference between a T1 line and the Internet. Only persons (presumably authorized) who are physically connected to a T1 circuit can access the data that passes through it. Banks, financial institutions, military organizations, and other entities to whom avoiding electronic eavesdropping is critical, use T1 lines in secure networks.

Reliable speed is another benefit of T1 lines. 24 logical channels, each of which moves data at 64 Kbps, for a total speed of 1.5 Mbps. That's not much compared to the advertised speeds of DSL and cable Internet connections: up to 5 or 6 Mbps. But DSL and cable are shared connections; you and your neighbors in a local service area share that 5 to 6 Mbps. If all of you start downloading DVD movies at once, things slow to a crawl. A T1 line provides reliable 1.5 Mbps speed for smoother videoconferencing and mission-critical file transfers between business locations.

You may see "bonded T1" service offered, with speeds of 3Mbps or 6Mbps. This is accomplished by combining either two or four T1 lines in a bundle, with some software "glue" to make it appear as a single T1 line. If you need that kind of speed, expect to pay 2-4 times as much for the service.

Versatility is a key characteristic of T1. Each channel can carry analog voice or digital data traffic (including Voice over IP). The 24 channels are ideal for business offices that have multiple people using the T1 line for different purposes all day. Two or more channels can be combined to give certain users more than 64 Kbps, or to provide two channels on one desktop for simultaneous voice and data.

How Much Does a T1 Line Cost?

T1 line prices used to be exorbitantly high: several thousand dollars a month! But competition from cable and DSL, primarily, have driven T1 line costs to the basement. Today, it is a rare case in which a T1 line costs more than a couple of hundred dollars per month. T1 prices are lowest in urban areas, where many T1 service providers compete and the lengths of T1 lines are relatively short. In rural areas where there is little competition and a T1 line may have to run for miles, prices are higher.

Fractional T1 line service is also available; instead of buying all 24 channels' worth of speed, you buy just what you need in increments of 64 Kbps channels. Fractional T1 service is "always on" - there's no dialing and waiting for a connection as there is in analog dialup connectivity. So inexpensive fractional T1 makes sense for credit card point-of-sale terminals and other time-sensitive but low-bandwidth business needs.

SpeakEasy, Covad and TowerStream are some well-known providers of T1 lines, and their websites will be helpful in getting an idea of the types of T1 packages and prices that are available. I recommend that you start your shopping for a T1 service provider by checking with your local phone company and internet service providers. Get a few quotes, then search online for T1 service providers in your area to find the best deal.