What Defines a Good T1 Line Carrier

Broadband data transmission has become important to most businesses. The reliance on digital communication for customer service and revenue means more businesses are considering a T1 line carrier for data communication. The term T1 line is commonly used for the physical medium over which the data is transmitted as well as the standard that defines how the data is formatted.

The standard was established in the late 1950s and represents the equivalent of 24 simultaneous voice lines. The standard specifies 1.54MBps data rate. All full T1 line users can expect this same data rate. DSL can deliver this same throughput at a lower cost. There are some significant reasons why the T1 line is worth the higher price.

For the home, home office, or small business user a broadband connection is a luxury. High speed transfers are nice but do not drive revenue. A slowdown or service interruption is a nuisance but does not represent an impact on business. DSL is provided as a "best effort" service with no guarantee of service quality or reliability.

For some businesses the "best effort" service is an unacceptable threat to revenue. T1 lines can eliminate the service lapses that can accompany DSL service. This reliability is the main benefit of the T1 line over DSL.

T1 carriers include service level agreements in the service contract. Service level agreements specify the bandwidth, service quality, service reliability and service restoration time limits. Any time the carrier's service falls outside the agreed limits the carrier is subject to penalties. With a carrier's profits on the line the incentive is to provide quality, reliable service.

Across the country, T1 providers range form small regional carriers to huge international phone companies. T1 line pricing is highly competitive. Companies are always finding ways to offer lower prices to get customers. Any business that is considering a broadband connection should do some research into the locally available carriers. The reward will be a lower price for the service. It is equally important to investigate a prospective vendor's reputation and ability to meet obligations before getting married to an attractive rate.

The monthly fees for a T1 line have two major components. Each carrier has a pricing structure that is only part of the total customer cost. This is the fee the T1 carrier charges to provide service to the local phone company offices. The local phone company then charges to establish and maintain the physical connection between the phone company and the customer premises. This is called the local loop and the actual cost varies with distance from the phone company to the user's site. Installation and setup charges are often added but some phone companies will waive these charges for long-term contracts.

Fractional T1 lines are limited bandwidth connections with fractions of full T1 bandwidth equivalent to multiples of 64 kbps - the basic data rate of one voice or data channel. Carrier charges are reduced in proportion to the relative bandwidth. The local loop charges are not reduced because the local phone company sees fractional and full T1 as identical. The total charge for a fractional T1 is not proportional to the reduction in bandwidth. For most customers it will make more sense to opt for the full T1 bandwidth at a small extra cost. Customers should contact T1 carriers to get complete price information.