The Secrets of Fractional T1
If you can not afford a full T1 line, you need to consider a partial T1 line instead. Why not get all the extra benefits of T1 even if you’re not in a market for a full T1? For many people the biggest factor in their decision making is reliability. You should think about it too if reliability is critical to the applications you run over your network line. If you are currently using DSL for your internet connection, you must think about replacing it with fractional T1. DSL is a quick and inexpensive method of acquiring high speed bandwidth in Monteagle, however it is not intended to support mission-critical applications or high volumes of traffic as are T1 connections.
A drawback with fractional T1 service is the price. Even though you won't have a full T1, you wind up paying quite a bit more than you otherwise would for your DSL connection. This is due to the fee schedule of T1 pricing. A T1 connection is established by installing a "loop" or cable from the user's building to the CO where the carrier has equipment. Part of the cost of a T1 is the "loop charge" or the monthly rental fee for the cable that is rented from the local phone company. Once the connection reaches the CO it can access the carrier’s network and communicate with any destination. This loop is charged in full whether you use a fraction of the available capacity or the full 1.5Mbps and therefore your cost for a 768Kbps fractional T1 connection will never be fifty percent of the cost of a 1.5mbps full T1 connection.
Although the price decrease is not what you might wish it to be, this may still put a fractional T1 within your budget and be a great way to get dedicated service into your office. Once you have fractional service, migrating to full service is easy. Fractional service usually comes in 256Kbps increments from 256Kbps all the way to a full T1 at 1.5Mbps. Find the service that's best for you, but if you are supporting important services, think about reliability. Reliability becomes critical when customers or employees need to use your connection for immediate responses. If your clients use your connection to query your databases or your server or the Internet, then reliability of your connection is vital. If your employees depend on your connections because you host the e-mail server in house or host web servers or ASP type products, your communication lines are considered critical. A critical connection can be thought of like a lifeline, without which your company would be in trouble.
