T1 - Is It Right for You?
Is it time to upgrade with a T1 in Reston? There are several considerations when examining your existing DSL network as well as the likelihood of replacing it. For the majority of people, the biggest aspect is dependability and if dependability is critical to the applications you execute on your connection, you need to really look into replacing your DSL connection with a T1. DSL is a swift and cost effective method of attaining high speed bandwidth, but it is not meant to support commercial applications or huge numbers of users that a T1 line can handle.
Reliability becomes critical when customers or employees depend on your connection for immediate responses. If your customers use your connection to access your databases or your server or the internet, then reliability of your connection is crucial. If your employees rely on your connections because you host the e-mail server in house or host web servers, your connections is considered critical. A critical connection can be viewed much like a life line, without which your business would be negatively impacted. Your monthly savings of having a sub-par connections will not make up for the loss in productivity of your employees or loss of customers when your DSL connections gets bogged down or cut off. To reiterate, critical connections should be supported with a T1 internet service.
Many customers are very price sensitive and cannot afford the cost of a T1 line which can be as much as 20 times more expensive than a DSL connection. Residential customers who are most sensitive to price should not consider a T1 circuit unless they have a business reason to pay for such a circuit and cannot access DSL service. Most people don't realize that a DSL connection can be just as fast as a T1 at 1.5Mbps. The shortcoming of DSL is that it is oversubscribed. This means there is a finite amount of bandwidth available and a customer's speed can plummet if other customers in the neighborhood decide to use their service. SDSL (Synchronous DSL) is a business class DSL and is ranked as a higher priority than residential DSL or ADSL (Asynchronous DSL). This means it is not oversubscribed to the extent than ADSL and is subject to fewer bandwidth limitations. In short, if price is your critical factor, go with DSL. If reliability is the critical factor, buy a dedicated T1 and don't be afraid of the T1 line cost.
