Outgrowing Our T1 Line
A few months ago our business (who processes a lot of large medical images) was growing fast, it became obvious that we required additional bandwidth.Our T1 line just wasnt cutting it anymore (T1 bandwidth is only 1.5 megabits). We had no choice but to upgrade.
As the IT guy, I was the one renegotiating our existing contract. Our 3 year term was almost over, so I was in the position to shop around for different alternatives.
The most obvious choice would have been to change from a single t1 to a bonded T1. However it would not take long before that also would not be adequate.
My sales rep with this carrier (who will remain unnamed here) was happy to point me to a bigger and far more costly solution: ds3 bandwidth (T3 line) which has a capacity of 45 megabits per second. Obviously that would be bandwidth enough taking our projected growth into consideration, it was possibly even way too much. And monthly recurring cost was in the higher 4 digit figures, something my boss wasnt too happy with of course.
With due diligence I did some more research until I found something that sounded too good to be true. A new technology (or at least new to me) that can deliver bandwidth via an Ethernet port over phone lines, also called Ethernet over Copper. The pricing was excellent; we were able to get a 10 meg port for less than a 3mb bonded t-1!
Another significant advantage of carrier ethernet is that it is very scalable. We can just add bandwidth by simply ordering more, in small incremental steps of a few megabit, even all the way up to a gigabit Ethernet circuit.
Be sure to shop around with several carriers and make sure you are aware of new technologies (or use a telecommunications consultant that is).
