Ds1 Prices
DS3 prices have been falling for the last few years. This is due to several factors. Competition has been heating up since deregulation in 1996. The number of companies offering service has exploded. With more competition in the marketplace service providers have to reduce their prices to attract customer and keep them from going to competitors. Service providers are desperate to keep margins but even more desperate to keep adding customers.
The soft economy and crash of the stock market has also contributed to the reduction in ds3 price. Since the peak of the market in 1999 many companies have gone out of business and no longer require service. This means there is a smaller pie available and there are plenty of telecom providers trying to get their share. Once again, the buyer is in control and can shop until he or she finds the price that is right for them. DSL is a quick and cost effective method of acquiring high speed bandwidth however it is not intended to support commercial applications or large numbers of users as are T1 connections.
Keep in mind that reliability becomes critical when customers or employees depend on your connection for immediate responses. If your customers use your connection to access your databases or your server or the internet then reliability of your connection is critical. If your employees depend on your connections because you host the e-mail server in house or host web servers or ASP type products, your connections is considered critical.
Also good to remember is the fact that a critical connection can be viewed much like a lifeline, without which your business would be negatively impacted. Your monthly savings of having a sub-par connections will not make up for the loss in productivity of your employees or loss of customers when your DSL connections gets bogged down or cut off. To reiterate, critical connections should be supported with a T1.
Several customers are extremely price sensitive and cannot afford the cost of a T1 which can be as much as 20 times more expensive than a full T1 connection. Residential customers who are most sensitive to price should not consider a T1 circuit unless then have a business reason to pay for such a circuit and cannot access DSL service. Most people don't realize that a DSL connection can be just as fast as a T1 at 1.5Mbps.
Remember that there is a finite amount of bandwidth available and a customers speed can drop if other customers in the neighborhood decide to use their service. SDSL is a business class DSL and is ranked as a higher priority than residential DSL or ADSL. This means it is not oversubscribed to the extent than ADSL and is subject to fewer bandwidth restrictions.
