Shopping for Bandwidth Pays of
Last year our company was growing fast, it became evident that we required more bandwidth.The T1 line we had simply was not big enough for all traffic.
As head of the IT department, I started renegotiating our current contract. Our 1 year term was almost over, so we were able to look at different alternatives.
The most apparent answer would have been to go from a single t1 to a bonded T1. However with our growth rate, it would not take long before that also would not be enough.
Our sales rep with this bandwidth provider (who will remain unnamed here) of course was glad to point me to a bigger and far more expensive solution: a DS3 (T3 line) with a capacity of 45 megabits per second. Obviously that would be bandwidth enough taking our projected growth into consideration, it was perhaps even way too much. And monthly recurring cost was in the higher 4 digit figures.
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 internet access via an Ethernet port over phone lines, Ethernet over Copper. The pricing was superb; we were able to get a 10 meg port for less than a 3mb bonded t-1!
And another important benefit of carrier ethernet bandwidth 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.
So when upgrading any services, be sure to shop around with several providers and make sure you are aware of new technologies (or use a telecommunications consultant that is).
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