For most small business technology applications, price is the top consideration. But when considering high-speed or broadband Internet service, that top consideration needs to be speed.

That’s because slower broadband access will likely cost more money in the long run in the form of lost productivity. So, for a small business owner, the question of whether cable is faster than DSL is a salient one. The answer?

It depends. Cable firms advertise speeds of up to 6 megabits per second (Mbps), but to quote a well-known auto ad disclaimer, actual speeds may vary. Because cable relies on shared bandwidth technology, if a lot of users are on at once in the immediate area, they will slow the connection. Average speeds for the telcos’ broadband rival to cable, digital subscriber line (DSL) service, go as high as 1.5 Mbps, but that rate tends to be steadier since bandwidth isn’t shared outside the office. Actual speeds, of course, vary from minute to minute for both.

Small business traditionally preferred DSL

More small businesses have traditionally gone for DSL. This year, 35 percent of businesses with fewer than 500 employees will have DSL versus 25 percent for cable, according to The Yankee Group, a Boston research firm. (The rest of the pie is divided by dial-up, “none” or T-1, the latter of which can be DSL or cable.) That’s changing. Over the last three or four years, many cable firms have begun targeting small businesses. “The cable companies are doing a smashup job talking about speed, speed, speed,” said Yankee Group director Steve Hilton. “It’s worked.”

In response, telcos have slashed rates for DSL. Covad, a DSL provider based in San Jose, Calif., dropped its prices 30 percent over the last 18 months. Cable companies haven’t responded to the price war, so they tend to be more expensive. Covad’s DSL starts at around $50.

Hilton says $90 a month is around the average a small business can expect to pay for either cable or DSL. Companies typically waive a set-up fee in return for a year or more contract.

Many upgrade to T-1

The question for many fast-growing businesses is whether DSL or cable broadband service is fast and/or reliable enough. Many companies opt for the more expensive and robust T-1 service, which telcos and cable firms both provide. David McMorrow, vice president of sales for Covad, says his technicians can repair a busted T-1 line in about four hours, versus 12 to 18 hours to fix a standard DSL connection. “Businesses can’t tolerate their Internet connection being down,” Hilton says.

Your business will pay for the better service, though. T-1 averages around $400 a month. But it guarantees small businesses consistent speeds of 1.5 Mbps and up.

Thermal Dynamics, an Ontario, Calif., firm that makes oil coolers and power steering coolers for General Motors’ Hummer and Ford’s Mustang, respectively, bonds three T-1s to get an average speed of 4.5 Mpbs. The firm, which has about 300 U.S. employees, pays about $1,200 a month, which includes on-call support from Los Angeles T-1 provider TierZero.

By Todd Wasserman

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The basic unit of the T-carrier system is the DS0, which has a transmission rate of 64 kbit/s, and is commonly used for one voice circuit.

The E-carrier system, where ‘E’ stands for European, is incompatible with the T-carrier (though cross compliant cards exist) and is used in most locations outside of North America, Japan, and Korea. It typically uses the E1 line rate and the E3 line rate. The E2 line rate is less commonly used. See the table below for bit rate comparisons.

Existing frequency-division multiplexing carrier systems worked well for connections between distant cities, but required expensive modulators, demodulators and filters for every voice channel. For connections within metropolitan areas, Bell Labs in the late 1950s sought cheaper terminal equipment. Pulse-code modulation allowed sharing a coder and decoder among several voice trunks, so this method was chosen for the T1 system introduced into local use in 1961. In later decades, the cost of digital electronics declined to the point that an individual codec per voice channel became commonplace, but by then the other advantages of digital transmission had become entrenched.

The most common legacy of this system is the line rate speeds. “T1″ now means any data circuit that runs at the original 1.544 Mbit/s line rate. Originally the T1 format carried 24 pulse-code modulated, time-division multiplexed speech signals each encoded in 64 kbit/s streams, leaving 8 kbit/s of framing information which facilitates the synchronization and demultiplexing at the receiver. T2 and T3 circuit channels carry multiple T1 channels multiplexed, resulting in transmission rates of 6.312 and 44.736 Mbit/s, respectively.

Supposedly, the 1.544 Mbit/s rate was chosen because tests done by AT&T Long Lines in Chicago were conducted underground. To accommodate loading coils, cable vault manholes were physically 2000 meter (6,600 ft) apart, and so the optimum bit rate was chosen empirically — the capacity was increased until the failure rate was unacceptable, then reduced to leave a margin. Companding allowed acceptable audio performance with only seven bits per PCM sample in this original T1/D1 system. The later D3 and D4 channel banks had an extended frame format, allowing eight bits per sample, reduced to seven every sixth sample or frame when one bit was “robbed” for signaling the state of the channel. The standard does not allow an all zero sample which would produce a long string of binary zeros and cause the repeaters to lose bit sync. However, when carrying data (Switched 56) there could be long strings of zeroes, so one bit per sample is set to “1″ (jam bit 7) leaving 7 bits x 8,000 frames per second for data.

A more common understanding of how the rate of 1.544 Mbit/s was achieved is as follows. (This explanation glosses over T1 voice communications, and deals mainly with the numbers involved.) Given that the highest voice frequency which the telephone system transmits is 4,000 Hz, the required digital sampling rate is 8,000 Hz (see Nyquist rate). Since each T1 frame contains 1 byte of voice data for each of the 24 channels, that system needs then 8,000 frames per second to maintain those 24 simultaneous voice channels. Because each frame of a T1 is 193 bits in length (24 channels X 8 bits per channel + 1 framing bit = 193 bits), 8,000 frames per second is multiplied by 193 bits to yield a transfer rate of 1.544 Mbit/s (8,000 X 193 = 1,544,000).

Initially, T1 used Alternate Mark Inversion (AMI) to reduce frequency bandwidth and eliminate the DC component of the signal. Later B8ZS became common practice. For AMI, each mark pulse had the opposite polarity of the previous one and each space was at a level of zero, resulting in a three level signal which however only carried binary data. Similar British 23 channel systems at 1.536 Mbaud in the 1970s were equipped with ternary signal repeaters, in anticipation of using a 3B2T or 4B3T code to increase the number of voice channels in future, but in the 1980s the systems were merely replaced with European standard ones. American T-carriers could only work in AMI or B8ZS mode.

The AMI or B8ZS signal allowed a simple error rate measurement. The D bank in the central office could detect a bit with the wrong polarity, or “bipolarity violation” and sound an alarm. Later systems could count the number of violations and reframes and otherwise measure signal quality and allow a more sophisticated alarm indication signal system.

Historical Note on the 193-bit T1 frame

The decision to use a 193-bit frame was made in 1958, during the early stages of T1 system design. To allow for the identification of information bits within a frame, two alternatives were considered. Assign (a) just one extra bit, or (b) additional 8 bits per frame. The 8-bit choice is cleaner, resulting in a 200-bit frame, 25 8-bit channels, of which 24 are traffic and 1 8-bit channel available for operations, administration, and maintenance (OA&M). AT&T chose the single bit per frame not to reduce the required bit rate (1.544 vs 1.6 Mbit/s), but because AT&T Marketing worried that “if 8 bits were chosen for OA&M function, someone would then try to sell this as a voice channel and you wind up with nothing.”

Soon after commercial success of T1 in 1962, the T1 engineering team realized the mistake of having only one bit to serve the increasing demand for housekeeping functions. They petitioned AT&T management to change to 8-bit framing. This was flatly turned down because it would make installed systems obsolete.

Having this hindsight, some ten years later, CEPT chose 8 bits for framing the European E1.

Digital signal crossconnect

DS1 signals are interconnected typically at Central Office locations at a common metallic cross-connect point known as a DSX-1. A DS1 signal at a DSX-1 is measured typically at 6 Volts Peak-to-peak (0dBdsx signal level at 772 kHz Nyquist) at plus or minus 1.2 volts to permit easy interconnection of DS1 equipment NCI Code=04DS9/ /). When a DS1 is transported over metallic outside plant cable, the signal travels over conditioned cable pairs known as a T1 span. A T1 span can have up to -130 Volts of DC power superimposed on the associated four wire cable pairs to line or “Span” power line repeaters, and T1 NIU’s (T1 Smartjacks). T1 span repeaters are typically engineered up to 6,000 feet apart, depending on cable gauge, and at no more than 36 dB of loss before requiring a repeated span. There can be no cable bridge taps across any pairs.

T1 copper spans are being replaced by optical transport systems, but if a copper (Metallic) span is used, the T1 is typically carried over an HDSL encoded copper line. Four wire HDSL does not require as many repeaters as conventional T1 spans. Newer two wire HDSL (HDSL-2) equipment transports a full 1.54400 Mbit/s T1 over a single copper wire pair up to approximately twelve thousand (12,000) feet (3.5 km), if all 24 gauge cable is used. HDSL-2 does not employ repeaters as does conventional four wire HDSL, or newer HDSL-4 systems.

One advantage of HDSL is its ability to operate with a limited number of bridge taps, with no tap being closer than 500 feet from any HDSL transceiver. Both two or four wire HDSL equipment transmits and receives over the same cable wire pair, as compared to conventional T1 service that utilizes individual cable pairs for transit or receive.

DS3 signals are rare except within buildings, where they are used for interconnections and as an intermediate step before being muxed onto a SONET circuit. This is because a T3 circuit can only go about 600 feet (180m) between repeaters. A customer who orders a DS3 usually receives a SONET circuit run into the building and a multiplexer mounted in a utility box. The DS3 is delivered in its familiar form, two coax cables (1 for send and 1 for receive) with BNC connectors on the ends.

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Implementations
What is VOIP? Voice over Internet Protocol (also known as VoIP) refers to a set of technologies used for the delivery or transmission of voice communications through the Internet, packet-switched networks and other IP networks. It is implemented in different ways with the use of both open and proprietary protocols. The different implementations of this system include Skype, H.323 and IMS.

Benefits
The use of Voice over Internet Protocol is very advantageous. The use of this system allows people and corporations to save money because the billing is based on the amount of data transferred through the use of the Internet. Aside from this, VoIP has several interesting and helpful features such as call forwarding, conference calling as well as automatic redial. In addition, this system allows computer users to transfer several calls with the use of different protocols or standards like the Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol. Other services available with this digital communications tool are audio conferencing and video conversation.

Challenges
Before using this system, it is important to know the limitations of Voice over Internet Protocol. One of the challenges or limitations of using the system is that it does not offer Quality of Service guarantees. Aside from these, users can experience congestion of information because data are transmitted in a computer network that commonly implements a fixed bandwidth. To avoid the congestion of data, some companies that use the system employ teletraffic engineering technologies.

To make sure that the use of VoIP will be efficient and fast, it is best to follow protocols that are associated with Physical Layer and Data link Layer such as Quality of Service standards. Aside from these, the other protocols that can be used to ensure efficient transmission of data are SIP RTCP Summary Reports, MGCP extensions as well as H.460.9 Annex B.

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It used to be that small businesses — especially home-based businesses — had a choice between DSL and cable modem for their broadband Internet needs. Now, several providers, including AT&T and Verizon, are offering higher speed connections over fiber optic cable.

Here we assess whether or not fiber is ideal for your small or mid-sized business or home-based practice, and discuss the pros and cons of the technology.

Advantages of fiber

“Fiber-based solutions represent the telecommunications industry’s next great hope,” says Carmi Levy, senior vice president of strategic consulting at AR Communications Inc. in Toronto. “While cable-based Internet services have gradually become much faster over the last decade, DSL has lagged, and so the market has been ready for a viable third option, and it has it in fiber.”

Levy says the move from DSL or cable to fiber can be as significant as the shift from dial-up to DSL or cable. “Next-generation speeds will also fundamentally change the face of the Internet as developers rush to bring rich new services to market that take advantage of these new, bigger, faster pipes,” adds Levy.

Steve Hilton, vice president of enterprise and small and mid-sized business research at the Boston-based Yankee Group, agrees with Levy on the advantage of greater speeds and support for richer services. “The pros of fiber-based connections are blazingly fast data, bundled voice and video, which all make for a strong … offering” for small and mid-sized businesses.

Another advantage, believes Hilton, is “extremely competitive” pricing, as is the case of Verizon’s FiOS.

Levy says fiber-based connectivity can be especially advantageous to those who work from a home office. “Home businesses in particular have long had a need for reliable, high-performance network connections, — when you’re a small business and your only connection to the outside world comes courtesy of your Internet provider, your very survival depends on how effectively it all works,” Levy says. “A slow, unreliable connection hampers your competitiveness and [can] reduce the efficiency of your business applications.” Considering many applications are going online (often referred to as “cloud computing”), the role of the network becomes ever more important.

Obstacles to upgrading

According to Hilton, the main drawback to fiber at this point in time depends on where your business is: “Geography is the biggest limitation to this technology today.”

“Geography has always been a major issue for carriers as well as consumers,” adds Levy. “While carriers have often focused their attention on deploying services to major urban areas, they have taken a much more conservative approach to servicing more rural regions.” This is largely an issue of cost, explains Levy, as it’s expensive to deliver distance-sensitive services to sparsely populated regions. In many cases, the payback period would be so long that the carriers would never make a profit, so they’ve held back.

“The question as the age of fiber dawns is whether this same urban versus rural issue will play out as well, or whether Verizon and future fiber carriers have figured out a way to bring the capital investment down so that rural users can enjoy high-speed access just like people in urban areas,” says Levy.

Wireless solutions — such as WiMAX and long term evolution (LTE) cellular technology — are also catching on, which provides a less-tethered alternative to fiber.

Hilton says other potential issues include phone system support. “I don’t think you can backhaul an IP PBX over fiber-to-the-home today,” he says. Pricing by some carriers also isn’t as aggressive, and usually involves a mandatory contract which might not appeal to some businesses.

Despite these kinks, many technology pundits believe fiber can help small businesses remain connected and competitive with this fatter pipe and access more sophisticated online resources than they could through conventional cable or DSL.

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TYPES OF ISPs
Internet access is available from a wide range of companies, including telephone and cable companies, online services, large national ISPs, and small independent ISPs. There are no reliable data on the number of ISPs in the market. An article in the Philadelphia Business Journal estimated that there were more than 7,000 firms providing Internet access in the United States by the middle of 2000. Other industry observers and participants dispute this figure suggesting that the number of ISPs is much lower. Whatever the actual number of ISPs may be, what is certainly clear is that those interested in setting up an Internet access account have many choices available. Choosing one that best suits one’s needs takes a little study.

Online Services
The first Internet service providers to become widely known weren’t even full ISPs but rather what were known as online services because of their members-only offerings and somewhat limited full Internet access. These were America Online (AOL) and CompuServe. It is usually very easy to set up an account with one of the major online services. A computer user equipped with a modem can establish an account of this sort and begin surfing the Internet with just a few clicks of a mouse.

Although easy to establish and set up, an account with one of these large online services may not be the most appropriate way for a small business to access the Internet. Online services have some disadvantages. For example, access to a small business’s web site and promotional information may be limited to members of the online service. In addition, many online services charge high advertising fees—or collect a percentage of sales—when they are used to conduct Internet commerce. Finally, some online services monitor and restrict the content of information sent via e-mail or posted to newsgroups.

National ISPs
Another type of ISP is the national ISP. These include such companies as Earthlink and MindSpring who offer Internet access in a broad geographical area. Compared to local ISPs, these companies tend to offer higher-speed connections and greater long-term stability. Many national providers also offer a broad range of services, including long-distance telephone service, web site hosting, and secure electronic transactions. They are generally a good choice for small businesses that want employees to be able to access the Internet while traveling. They may also be convenient for businesses that operate in several locations and wish to use the ISP for all locations. The main disadvantages of the larger ISPs are that they rarely offer the level of personalized service available from smaller providers, and they may have so many customers that a small business’s employees could have trouble gaining access during prime business hours.

Small ISPs
Small, independent ISPs operate in many local or regional markets. These companies vary widely in size, stability, and quality of service. On the plus side, their access lines may be less busy than national ISPs. In addition, many smaller providers specialize in offering services to small businesses. Some of these ISPs may visit a small business customer’s work site, evaluate the company’s Internet access needs, and present different service packages. They may even assign a personal account representative to handle the small business’s growing electronic needs.

FINDING AN ISP
The first step in selecting an Internet Service Provider for your small business is to compile a list of potential vendors. According to Vince Emery in How to Grow Your Business on the Internet, looking in the local telephone directory is not the best place to start. ISPs are typically classified under a variety of confusing headings in the yellow pages. In addition, making a random selection based on a advertisement is no way to guarantee good service.

Instead, Emery recommends beginning your search for an ISP on the Internet. There are several sites that list ISPs by geographic region and also include pricing and contact information. The oldest and best-known of these sites is The List (www.thelist.com), a searchable site with information on 8,300 providers worldwide. Another possible source of information is an organization named “The Directory” (www.thedirectory.org), which lists 13,000 ISPs. Yahoo! and other search engines also yield a great deal of information about service providers. Those without access to the Internet can obtain a printed guide to ISPs from Light Reading (www.lightreading.com).

Small business owners might also benefit from calling business associates, professional organizations, chambers of commerce, and local computer users groups to obtain suggestions and references for potential ISPs. Another option is to hire a consultant to help you evaluate your business’s Internet access needs, sort through the various options, deal with the telephone company and ISP candidates, and avoid unnecessary costs or services. In any case, Emery recommends obtaining at least three quotes, encompassing both price and services provided, before selecting an ISP for your small business.

CONSIDERATIONS IN CHOOSING AN ISP
In choosing among the various ISP options, the most important thing to consider is the needs of the business. How much work will be done online and how dependent will the business’s communications be on e-mail and other online services? The answer to these questions will determine the range of bandwidth needed—a simple dial-up connection or a broad band connection capable of providing a number of people with high-speed connections simultaneously. By determining the bandwidth or speed requirements for the Internet connection one may help to limit the number of ISPs to consider.

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Domestic Wireless’s products and services include wireless voice, data services and other value-added services and equipment sales across the United States.

Wireline’s communications services include voice, Internet access, broadband video and data, next generation Internet protocol (IP) network services, network access, long distance and other services. It provides these services to consumers, carriers, businesses and government customers both in the United States and internationally in 150 countries.

In August 2008, Verizon announced that Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of the Company and Vodafone Group Plc, had completed its purchase of Rural Cellular Corporation, doing business as Unicel. In January 2009, Verizon Wireless completed its acquisition of Alltel Corporation from Atlantis Holdings LLC.

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Sprint Nextel is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including two wireless networks serving almost 49 million customers at the end of the second quarter of 2009; industry-leading mobile data services; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone.

The company’s customer-focused strategy has led to improved first call resolution and customer care satisfaction scores.

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MetTel is one of the fastest growing, full service competitive local carriers (CLECs) in the U.S. expanding from its regional base in the Northease and Mid-Atlantic states, to serving customers in the 48 contiguous states and Washington D.C.

By aggressively and successfully expanding our service coverage and delivery throughout the country, we remain committed to providing the same superior service, optimal voice clarity, network availability and industry-recognized customer satisfactionlevels currently enjoyed by the thousands of retail, healthcare, government, financial services, and professional serviceswe serve throughout the nation.

Clients from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon – multi-satate, multi-location enterprises- realize higher value and better return on investment by taking advantage of the MetTel comprehensive portfolio of leading edge integrated products and services.

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American Telephone Company is proud to offer telecommunications solutions and services that are second to none in their quality, versatility and cost competitiveness. ATC has partnered with a variety of facilities based carriers that include ILEC’s, Broadband Providers and CLEC’s to offer our customers a complete variety of turnkey solutions. The ATC product portfolio offers solutions that will help your business maximize profit while minimizing hassle and cost.

Central to ATC’s success is our commitment to Industry Best Customer Care. As part of that commitment every ATC customer is assigned a personal Customer Care Specialist who will act as a single point of contact to help meet the needs of your business.

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Award winning AireSpring is one of the fastest growing telecommunications carriers in the USA, with over 4 billion call records processed every year. AireSpring is a privately held, diversified, debt free, and full service communications company which offers a broad range of innovative services at competitive prices.

AireSpring offers next-generation integrated, SIP/VoIP, voice, data, and conferencing products geared to deliver power and flexibility at cost-effective rates. When business needs power, flexibility, and affordability, AireSpring is THE solution!

AireSpring has been awarded “Product of the Year,” “Best Value,” “Members Choice,” and dozens of product awards.  To-date, AireSpring has set the record for more Telecom Association awards than any other carrier/reseller.

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