Are there really much advantages to having a T1 data line?

just wondering I know back in the late 1990s T1 line is like Godly if you have it at home.

but now with DSL lines ging up to 3mbps or Cable, Fios goiong to around 10+mbps all 3 for around $50 bux amonth.

are there really much advantage to paying $500+ a month for a T1 line? (I haven't check the pricing recently but last time I checked around 2003 a T1 line is about $500 a month)

As far as I know T1 line
- 1.5mbps (guaranteed)
- Can be mutiplex into voice lines.
- Higher tier of support service incase of down time.

I can understand the higher level of support incase of the line being down. but..
- for $150 a month you can get DSL, CABLE, FIOS and I'm sure it's pretty unlikely all 3 will be down in one shot.

maybe I'm out of it but can someone explain the need for T1 lines or what is still so special about it that companies are still using it?


also what about ISDN? god knows if any company still uses that. I once through about getting that back around 1997 to run my BBS but they charge by the meg...

It is too slow, but I can't get to download 50GB in 5 seconds off a Cable modem.

I haven't found any businesses recently that use T1s. Maybe it's an LA thing, but every SMB is running some sort of Business DSL, sometimes multiple lines from multiple carriers with load balanced/failover routers.

While I'm sure there are many companies who still use T1 lines, I think it's almost restricted to companies who want location-to-location internal voice communications.

T lines are mostly used now-a-days by companies needing lots of voice channels, that don't want or need to use VOIP. We have 9 T1 lines at work, most of which are split up into phone lines.

The only real advantage of using a T1 aside from the multiplexing and saving on your phone bill over using traditional phone lines, is the fact that you can use all that bandwidth to upload. I download much faster at home than I do at work, but the upload speed is insane compared to my piddly 384Kbps up.

For a home user... it's not worth the price, not even close. FIOS, if available, will download and upload much faster than a T1.

T1 and T3 lines are used for voice and point to point networks. They are the slowest and cheapest of the T carrier lines. Any business that requires secure communications will not use the internet. Think ATM networks, banking networks, brokerage networks, etc.

Most high speed private networks run either OC-1 (51.840Mbps) or OC-3 (155.520Mbps) circuits.

T1 lines generally seem to have priority routing too, which can save you a few extra hops if that matters. A lot of places still don't have good business DSL/cable, and so T1/T3 is still their only choice.

Yup, my neighbor has a T3 at home that his employer, NSA, pays for. Such a lucky guy. When I need to do a BIG download from Microsoft, I pay him a vist with a bottle or two for the favor.

I believe T1 is just from the router to the demarc now anyway. From there to the telco is generally using some form of DSL (HDSL?) because it is more efficient and does not require as many repeaters.

I don't have first hand knowledge of this though, but this is what I have read.

So yeah, buying a T1 is just purchasing 1.5 Mbps up and down. That's it. ;) And you're allowed to use that 1.5 Mbps 24/7/365. You have guaranteed bandwidth. I'll bet that even business-grade DSL has more oversubscription than a real T1.

The only big reason I see businesses using T1s now is when Cable is their only option and they block ports even on their "premier business" accounts.

Also had bad problems with one business paying for a static IP and just all of a sudden Adelphia changed the static to another address without reason or notice...talk about a headache!

I have one client that lives in the city, approximately 200 yards from a main street, since its not residential cable was never ran that direction. Time Warner refuses to do a cable run to their business despite the other 4 businesses in the complex also want service. They're stuck with a T1 because DSL isn't available.

I flat out hate consumer broadband, I'd take a T1 at my house any day over cable if anything from a reliability standpoint if it were affordable.

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Originally Posted by Strogian

I believe T1 is just from the router to the demarc now anyway. From there to the telco is generally using some form of DSL (HDSL?) because it is more efficient and does not require as many repeaters.

I don't have first hand knowledge of this though, but this is what I have read.

So yeah, buying a T1 is just purchasing 1.5 Mbps up and down. That's it. ;) And you're allowed to use that 1.5 Mbps 24/7/365. You have guaranteed bandwidth. I'll bet that even business-grade DSL has more oversubscription than a real T1.

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I seen in NYC big fiber mux in building basements.

I think one or two main fiber cable comes into the building and then it is muxed to many t1 or other data lines and then goes up to the customer via copper pairs.

In the olden days (early 90's) when I'd contract for a T1 or T3 from AT&T, they usually provided you with all the IP's you wanted at no extra charge. One of my clients had their own Class B address range to go with their circuits. T circuits are point to point. Thus, if you had 3 locations, you purchased 2 circuits - A to C and B to C.

Typically a client would designate an origin and a destination for the private circuit. In between the traffic would transition to frame relay or ATM and routed over whatever by the carrier. End-to-end bandwidth was guaranteed as well as service levels.

These were very expensive circuits in the 90's. A T1 cost ~$1k per month and a T3 cost ~$45k per month back then. We've come a long way since then.

Dont forget the ability to band t1's something you cant do with to many other connections..

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Originally Posted by Recon

Dont forget the ability to band t1's something you cant do with to many other connections..

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what is banding?

T3's are under $5K/mo now. You can get an OC-1 for roughly the same.

I know. Price drops in communications follow the same pricing path as microprocessor chips. A commercial 30mbps FiOS connection costs about $300 per month in our area. A residential connection costs about half that.

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Originally Posted by rimmerchant

what is banding?

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Eh you can call it IMA or Banding, basically taking 2 connections and making one or 3 connections or 45 connections (to get t3)



Also you cant truely band DLS

Is banding the same technology that is used for OC-3c lines? My old high school used one of those, and while the IT guy never really explained it to me, what I gathered was that is was basically three OC-1 lines that were combined somehow.

sortof but not really, banding fiber and banding twisted copper is a bit different.

the idea is the same though, taking multiple connections and making them run as one. TRUE banding though, not the hodg podg stuff you see poeple doing with 2 cable modems or 2 dls lines...

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Originally Posted by Recon

TRUE banding though, not the hodg podg stuff you see poeple doing with 2 cable modems or 2 dls lines...

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I thought that was just load balancing.

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Originally Posted by ua549

Yup, my neighbor has a T3 at home that his employer, NSA, pays for. Such a lucky guy. When I need to do a BIG download from Microsoft, I pay him a vist with a bottle or two for the favor.

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that's badass...is he like a cryptologist or something or does he speak arabic? or would you have to kill me if you told me? :D

T1 was the shiz in the 90's but so was the voodoo series video cards, times have changed....still want someone to do something with the glide API

I have no idea what he does and I don't want to know. I do know that his regular office (unlisted) is buried in the basement of a nearby veterans hospital.

Usually there are no basements in my county because the water table is a couple of feet down from the surface. My sprinkler system runs from a 10' deep shallow well and delivers 70 gpm.

When I build my house, I'd consider getting a T1 line. The land is in a very unpopulated region, broadband will never be available. Well, except satellite and that sucks.

The big problem will be the big money for the pull, by the time I build my house, I may be able to afford a T3 when you consider that my pay will go up over time and bandwidth will drop. I've seen T3s as low as $1500 a month. That was through Speakeasy awhile back when I was checking for the hell of it.

You could always put up a tower and start your own WISP, I ran one for a while before comcast moved in and undercut me.

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Originally Posted by Recon

You could always put up a tower and start your own WISP, I ran one for a while before comcast moved in and undercut me.

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How much speed are we talking? I've thought about becoming an 'ISP' for myself and my neighbors. I could at least subsidize a good portion of my costs, even make a decent profit, if I did this.

Just the legal costs of becoming a CLEC are extremely large.
You must deal with the FCC, state regulators, ...
Just to become a web host provider is tough and takes a large investment. You'll need to rent a fenced in area at a CO location for rack space. You'll have limited access to your equipment located in that space.

It is easier to become an agent for an existing ISP and that is not easy.

One of our members, James, does web design and hosting. He has a day job for his well being.