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T1 internet vs Cable internet question(s)

J

jkaz

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 3, 2004
386
2
Upper Mid West
Hi,

I had a salesperson in my office yesterday trying to get us to switch to his phone and internet services.

My concern is on the internet side. He said his T1 connection for us would be a 'clean' and solid performing 1.5m download and upload.

With him standing right next to me, I did a speed test for my cable internet connection and it was 8.7m down and .87m up.

He admitted that that 8.7m down was 'lightning fast'.

He isn't trying to convince me that his 1.5m T1 will necessarily be 'faster', but he was trying to assure me that I possibly wouldn't be dissatisfied with his T1 when comparing to my 8.7m down I currently receive.

Any thoughts or comments are appreciated!

Thanks!

Jeff
 
jkaz said:
Hi,

I had a salesperson in my office yesterday trying to get us to switch to his phone and internet services.

My concern is on the internet side. He said his T1 connection for us would be a 'clean' and solid performing 1.5m download and upload.

With him standing right next to me, I did a speed test for my cable internet connection and it was 8.7m down and .87m up.

He admitted that that 8.7m down was 'lightning fast'.

He isn't trying to convince me that his 1.5m T1 will necessarily be 'faster', but he was trying to assure me that I possibly wouldn't be dissatisfied with his T1 when comparing to my 8.7m down I currently receive.

Any thoughts or comments are appreciated!

Thanks!

Jeff
Click to expand...

You are getting 8.7 mb down with your cable company but that is not stable, it fluctuates depending on how many people are on the line. Wit h T1 it's a dedicated line to you and the 1.5 mb down/up are constant. T1 is also more expensive because you are the only one using that line.
 
thanks for the response.

I think we might be the exception to the rule, our internet connection has, from my experiences, been extremely consistent.

Also, with the package of telephone and internet, the sales person said we would have a net savings over what we currently pay on telephone and cable internet.

So, I think we might not be getting 1.5m because we need 4 telephone lines.

Thanks,

Jeff
 
jkaz said:
thanks for the response.

I think we might be the exception to the rule, our internet connection has, from my experiences, been extremely consistent.

Also, with the package of telephone and internet, the sales person said we would have a net savings over what we currently pay on telephone and cable internet.

So, I think we might not be getting 1.5m because we need 4 telephone lines.

Thanks,

Jeff
Click to expand...

Honestly, if you have no issues with your current ISP then don't switch. Are your phones VoIP?
 
our telephones are 'traditional' and very outdated, we don't even have caller id.

so with the new service, we would have T1 for internet and telephone plus all of the services that we don't have already, AND we would be saving maybe 5-15% a month
 
Well, here's my speedtest.net results for Comcast Cable High-Speed Internet:



In comparison to my AT&T DSL 3.0 Premium at 3723Mbps download and 575Mbps upload, I would say Cable is much nicer for me. Is T1 the same as Verizon FiOS? If it is, then you might want to double check with your local service provider to see if it can be installed in your area. It's not available in my area.
 
Unless you need fantastic reliability and are doing a lot of data transfers, why not go with the faster cable speeds? In this day and age 8.7mb download and .87mb upload isn't 'lightning fast' compared to what's offered in say, Japan.

I have cable...
 
8.7 down for cable is lightning fast in my market.

the reasons to go with the T1 would be for the rest of the telephone services that we would be getting with this company AND saving money.

My main concern right now is if I'm going to feel like I have a slow internet connection at the 1.5 with the T1 when compared to the 8.7 i'm accustomed to.
 
To OP, what type of downloads do you typically do? are their restrictions on the amount of data transfer on your cable network? are you allowed to run your own servers, etc. with them?

And have you noticed any performance drops in your speeds during certain times of the day, etc?
 
T1's are useless now a days...two good friends work for Verizon and they say over and over that their T1's go down all the time so relabilty goes out the window. As far as speed, I would rather ahve 5mb/s 1/2 the time then 1.5 all of the time. FIOS for the win. ;)
 
Martin C said:
Unless you need fantastic reliability and are doing a lot of data transfers, why not go with the faster cable speeds? In this day and age 8.7mb download and .87mb upload isn't 'lightning fast' compared to what's offered in say, Japan.
Click to expand...

But doesn't most broadband internet in Japan also come with bandwidth restrictions?
 
MacNut said:
1.5 seems low for a T1.
Click to expand...
Well, in actuality, a T1 line is 1.544Mbps. :p

To the OP, the benefit of a T1 line is constant bandwidth. If you have applications such as video conferencing for example, having a T1 may be beneficial because you are guaranteed the throughput (bandwidth).

Also, and this is not always true, T1 lines are more reliable.

These days FIOS, ADSL, VDSL, Cable, etc. are getting fast enough that most folks would rather go with one of these. However, along with faster speed comes periods of where you may get very slow speeds for short stints. If that is not an issue, then these other options may be better because of the faster download speeds.

Of course if you want dedicated up and download speeds that are faster, you can always opt for a T3 or better line. A T3 is comprised of 28 T1 lines and can sustain around 43.232Mbps. Unfortunately, a T3 will cost you an arm and a leg these days.
 
Im surprise T1 is only 1.5mb, i thought it had a reputation for blazing speeds. Maybe i'm confusing it with FIOS

Im on an ADSL2 line and i get:
 

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I'm pretty sure I've got a T2 connection. But I may be wrong (it's the University's internet) it doesn't really seem fast enough to be T2.

I get 5.5 megabits download and 5.7 upload.

SLC
 
SLC Flyfishing said:
I'm pretty sure I've got a T2 connection. But I may be wrong (it's the University's internet) it doesn't really seem fast enough to be T2.

I get 5.5 megabits download and 5.7 upload.
Click to expand...
Never heard of a T2 line.

Dedicated lines:
  • T1 - 1.544 megabits per second (24 DS0 lines)
  • T3 - 43.232 megabits per second (28 T1s)
  • OC3 - 155 megabits per second (84 T1s)
  • OC12 - 622 megabits per second (4 OC3s)
  • OC48 - 2.5 gigabits per seconds (4 OC12s)
  • OC192 - 9.6 gigabits per second (4 OC48s)
 
sushi said:
Never heard of a T2 line.

Dedicated lines:
  • T1 - 1.544 megabits per second (24 DS0 lines)
  • T3 - 43.232 megabits per second (28 T1s)
  • OC3 - 155 megabits per second (84 T1s)
  • OC12 - 622 megabits per second (4 OC3s)
  • OC48 - 2.5 gigabits per seconds (4 OC12s)
  • OC192 - 9.6 gigabits per second (4 OC48s)
Click to expand...

I'd guess OC192 is what governments/large ISPs use. Wonder what Apple uses.
 
Dedicated lines such as T1's usually come with SLA's (Service Level Agreement). That's your insurance that you don't lose connectivity. If you do lose connectivity, the provider makes fixing your problem a topic priority because there's consequences for them if they don't. It varies between contracts, but it's typically along the line of increasing refunds for every period of time the line is down.

T1's are slow compared to what most 'consumer' ISP offer these days. You may be able to get bonded T1's which would be faster, but even more expensive.

If your business can tolerate downtime, then there really isn't any need for a dedicated line.
 
daneoni said:
Im surprise T1 is only 1.5mb, i thought it had a reputation for blazing speeds. Maybe i'm confusing it with FIOS
Click to expand...

Back in the day when everyone was on dial up at home, before cable, DSL, FiOS, etc, T1 got it's reputation of being high speed because it's what a lot of schools, businesses and libraries had, and compared to dial up, it was fast. People began associating T1 with any high speed business-grade line. Technolgies evolved, consumer connections now surpass the speed of a T1, and businesses have upgraded to T3s and fiber, but people still refer to any fast business connection as a T1.

It's like how people use Kleenex to refer to any sort of tissue even though it's actually one specific brand.
 
yg17 said:
Back in the day when everyone was on dial up at home, before cable, DSL, FiOS, etc, T1 got it's reputation of being high speed because it's what a lot of schools, businesses and libraries had, and compared to dial up, it was fast. People began associating T1 with any high speed business-grade line. Technolgies evolved, consumer connections now surpass the speed of a T1, and businesses have upgraded to T3s and fiber, but people still refer to any fast business connection as a T1.

It's like how people use Kleenex to refer to any sort of tissue even though it's actually one specific brand.
Click to expand...

makes sense
 
sushi said:
Never heard of a T2 line.

Dedicated lines:
  • T1 - 1.544 megabits per second (24 DS0 lines)
  • T3 - 43.232 megabits per second (28 T1s)
  • OC3 - 155 megabits per second (84 T1s)
  • OC12 - 622 megabits per second (4 OC3s)
  • OC48 - 2.5 gigabits per seconds (4 OC12s)
  • OC192 - 9.6 gigabits per second (4 OC48s)
Click to expand...

I don't know much about these sorts of things, but I swear I heard one of the IT guys here on campus talking about the T2 internet lines. Could be T1 I suppose though it's certainly a fair bit faster than that.

SLC
 
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