T1 Internet Service Prices and Rates Quotes in Hartville

Only the FCC Can Stop CLEC Momentum

Thursday July 10, 2008, 05:32 am ET

CEDAR HILLS, Utah, Jul. 10 /Patrick Oborn/ -- The way business connect to the digital universe is changing. More and more enterprises are discovering the new broadband options made available to them through a series of cost cutting measures by telecommunication providers. With the recent rush to consolidate, more and more features are being crammed into the current service offerings, which continue to fall in price bringing products like integrated T1 service into the price range of the vast majority of small to medium-size businesses.

The old-school integrated T-1 was analog in nature, and came with 24 configurable channels (called a trunk) which could be configured to carry either voice or data traffic. The new "dynamic" trunks are all-digital and can change on-the-fly to carry either data or voice traffic. This comes in handy when none of the voice lines are in use - all channels can revert to carrying data traffic, giving the end-use a full 1.5 MBPS of broadband. Each phone call requires only 64K of bandwidth, so even a small handful of calls only slows down the data connection by a nominal amount.

The irony of the new small business communications revolution is that it took so long to gain traction. The whole idea of reclaiming inactive voice channels for data applications is not new, and was introduced by many CLEC operators over five years ago. So why did it take so long for SMB's to adopt the technology and make the change? One might argue that the Internet bubble burst in 2000 shook many people's confidence in telecommunications, one of the hardest hit industries. With so many telecoms going out of business, or merging with other small players just to stay solvent, many customers took the "wait and see" approach before making the decision to entrust their communications with a company not associated with Ma Bell. Now that economic Darwinism has taken hold, the remaining companies are attracting new customers who see the benefits of the new technology without the downside risk of loosing service or not being able to get through to customer service in the pinch.

At $50 to $75 per month, the average small business telephone customer could expect to pay up to $750 for just 10 regular phone lines, which come with only a standard set of features such as Voicemail, Caller ID, and Three-way calling. From 2000 to 2005, the cost of a dynamic integrated T1 line was well over $800, making it an unattractive option from a pure cost point of view. However, that paradigm has changed with the introduction of sub-$400/month price plans and features that make the old POTs lines look pre-historic.

Recent advances in technology, fostered by competition from growing CLECs, is bringing integrated T1 services to small business everywhere. And the trend doesn't look like it will change anytime soon. CLECs continue to grow their networks, offering more advanced services like metro ethernet, MPLS, and more. Will this train of innovation, lower prices, and services that add value to SMB's continue to roll down the tracks of progress? It's all up to our government - and which political party controls the FCC. Without the deregulation act of 1996, we would have never known just how much the CLECs were capable of.