Is a T1 Service Better than DSL?
Is a T1 line better than a DSL connection? A more appropriate question might be "Is a T1 connection MORE APPROPRIATE than a DSL connections". A T1 connection and DSL connection both supply bandwidth at high speed but have two factors that significantly differentiate them from one another. Those factors are cost and reliability. A DSL connection has a low cost and is less reliable than a T1 line. A T1 is much more costly than a DSL connection but is also much more reliable.
So are you looking for reliability or price? Reliability becomes significant when customers or employees depend on your connection for instant responses. If your customers use your connection to query your databases or your server or the Internet then reliability of your connection is essential. If your employees depend on your connections because you host the e-mail server in-house or host web servers, your connections are considered crucial. A critical connection can be seen much like a life line, without which your business would be devastatingly impacted. Your monthly savings of having a sub-par connections will not recover for the loss in productivity of your employees or loss of customers when your DSL connections gets bogged down or disconnected. To state my point again, critical connections should be provisioned with a T1 connection.
Many customers are extremely price sensitive and cannot find the money for a T1 which can be as much as 20 times more costly than a DSL connection. Residential customers who are most sensitive to price should not think about a T1 connection unless then have a business reason to pay for such a circuit and cannot access DSL service. You may get lucky and discover a T1 connection that is low cost which would give you both price and reliability, but be careful. Many T1's sold for under $600 are not truly dedicated circuits and are oversubscribed. In short, if price is your critical issue go with DSL. If reliability is the critical factor, then purchase a dedicated T1.
