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Integrated T1 Progress Report
Tuesday May 12, 2009,
01:36 pm ET
MC CUTCHENVILLE, Ohio, May. 12 /Kiersten Thomas/ --
During the 2000 Internet bubble meltdown, the telecom industry learned the hard way that
wild spending on network infrastructure was not the best approach to attracting new business
and investment. Over the past 7 years the industry, particularly the CLECs (Competitive
Local Exchange Carriers) have been focusing on building products that offer more bang
for the buck in order to compete with the Bells in their own backyards. One product that
has become the flagship offering to small to medium size businesses is the dynamic integrated
T1 line, which combines all the usefulness of 24 regular phone lines into a singe T-1
capable of delivering high-speed broadband on the same connection.
The Ohio area is one place in particular where the analog to digital
revolution is gaining traction. One business owner we interviewed about
his recent decision to become a digital convert, Peter Anderson, explained
that "my biggest hindrance was my ignorance. Had I known that there was
a solution that would allow me to increase the number of voice lines,
get a full T1 (1.5 MB) of high-speed Internet, all for less than I was paying
for my POTS/DSL configuration, I would have made the move a long time ago."
Many others like Mr. Anderson are coming to the same conclusion.
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.
Given the fact that many companies still to this day have yet to make the change to digital
SIP-trunking enabled dynamic T1s, one must ask why the delay? The value proposition that
dynamic adds and the economic benefits are there, however, the technology is slow to be
adopted by mainstream corporations. One reason for this lag is the bad reputation that
telecom companies have built for themselves through the meltdown of the industry from
2000 to 2003, when many companies either went out of business, merged with other larger
companies, or just hunkered down and weathered the storm. Now that the industry has made
great strides to stabilize by offering better rates, better products, and better customer
service, small business owners are gradually starting to listen to the presentations being
made by consultants and inside sales agents. With that increase in confidence, and with
the growing number of testimonials being offered by happy customers, businesses are becoming
less reluctant to make the jump.
The only thing that can get in the way of future progress is the law. You know, the one
that requires the RBOCs to lease their local loops to CLECs at a reduced rate so that
the customer can get a dedicated connection between their office and the CLECs' network.
If the FCC decided to lift this requirement, this whole deck of cards could come down
in a hurry, and when it does, you can kiss dynamic integrated T1 service for under $500
good bye!
Recent advances in technology, fostered by competition from growing CLECs, is bringing
integrated T1 services to small business everywhere. And the trend doesn't look like
it will change anytime soon. CLECs continue to grow their networks, offering more
advanced services like metro ethernet, MPLS, and more.
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