basic.design.simple.methods.
Having more bandwidth is costly, having a lot of bandwidth is expensive! For this one week event, I brought in a 6 mbps link through Covad Wireless for $3,000. The $3,000 gives me this 6 mbps ethernet drop off with a full Class-C of IP’s for one month. What type of speeds did I actually get?
For about $60 to $80 per month, you are able to get high speed internet access at home via DSL, cable or now FIOS through Verizon (limited to certain areas). To the right, you can see a speed test I conducted on a DSL connection at home. Sure it is a decent download speed but the upload is a bit slow. That’s the problem with most home connections, the download is fast but upload is slow. Even with typical cable providers of internet access, you have this as well. I think most DSL and cable access have download speeds of about 5-6 mbps and upload speeds up to 1 mbps.
Now let us compare that to true T-1 lines as I see at work. As a service provider, we get T-1 lines from AT&T, MCI, Qwest, Verizon, etc. A single T-1 line gives you exactly 1.544 mbps download and upload (no more, no less). You always have the option of adding to the bandwidth by adding T-1 lines, thus introducing NxT1, which N = number of T-1 lines. So for a 3xT1, it just means 1.5444 mbps times 3 or roughly 4.5 mbps. Of course you will get about three T-1 drop offs and need an enterprise router like Cisco with multiple interface cards to get these T-1’s bonded together. The cost for a T-1 circuit can range from different providers but a safe bet would be about $1,000 per month. (This number could be less now with many different LEC’s (Local Exchange Carriers) selling T-1’s now.
