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Flexible Products, Lower Prices
Thursday July 10, 2008,
05:05 pm ET
HALSEY, Oregon, Jul. 10 /Don Romburgh/ --
The digital universe, and the way people connect to it, is changing. Small businesses, in
particular, are discovering new high-speed Internet and telecom options that are now
squarely within their budgets. Through a myriad of mergers and acquisitions, telecommunication
providers have greatly enhanced their integrated T1 products with features that businesses
can't live without, all while dropping the price to about half of what they were just
two years ago.
The same basic economic model described in the book "Blue Ocean Strategies" is now being
applied to telecommunication services being offered to small businesses across the country:
more value for less money. According to many industry watch dogs, hundreds of thousands
of business will dump their POTs lines in favor of dynamic integrated T1 service within
the next 12 to 24 months, saving money in the process. With the introduction
of sub-$475 dynamic integrated T-service, customers are now able to receive up to 1.5 MBPS
of high-speed Internet with 24 digital phone lines all on one line, for less than what they
pay now for 5 regular phone lines" Stallions continued.
When asked about his recent decision to replace his TDM channelized T1 with a
SIP-enabled dynamic T1, Robert Probst, small business owner in San Diego, explained
that "it was really an easy decision to make. My business was growing and I couldn't
afford the cost of more voice trunks. When I learned that it was possible to
have up to 16 voice lines, and a full data T1 of high speed Internet bandwidth,
all on the same line, for under $500 - I was sold. I ended up expanding the
telecom capability of my business, improving the quality of my Internet connection,
and saved money while doing it."
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.
Hopefully the CLECs can continue to push the boundaries of innovation and economics.
The only thing that can keep them from the promise land is the gatekeeper of competition:
the Federal Communications Commission, and the huge Bells (AT&T and Verizon - that's you)
who make it a point to spend more money lobbying in Washington DC than Exxon Mobile.
The golden age of telecommunications may be upon us, based upon our research and
recent uptick in customer satisfaction. Although the industry has years of
bad blood to overcome, recent innovations such as the dynamically configuring
T1 line are proof that progress is indeed being made.
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