About T1 Connections

Basics And Advantages Of A T1 Connection

A T1 connection refers to a phone company cable which can carry a whole lot more data than the ordinary telephone wire. It was first developed by AT&T for Japan and North America in the late 1950s. It was meant to be a solution for digital transmission of voice data.

A T1 speeds data through at a bruising 1.544 Mbps, which is 30 times faster than a 56 kbps dial up modem. T1 lines were initially all twisted copper pairs, and many still are. But the newer ones are increasingly all fiber optic cables.

There are many advantages of having a T1 line between the phone company and the customer. For starters, it offers the customer a dedicated high-speed network for data and voice transmission. Secondly, it is a lot cheaper for a company to shell out for a T1 trunk, rather than pay for multiple traditional telephone connections.

For example, let's say a company needs 8 or 10 individual telephone connections and also has extensive internet and data transfer needs. The sum total of all the telephone bills plus the monthly corporate internet access charges would be a lot higher than what the company would pay for a single T1 connection. Besides, it also includes both voice and data transmission for the entire organization.

Of course, these savings are available only if the company's needs are large enough. For individuals and residences, the cost of a T1 may not be feasible as compared to an ordinary line. The costs are going down as demand grows, but as of now T1 is a solution primarily meant for companies big enough to warrant a PBX system.

There are four basic types of T1 connections. Under an integrated T1, the customer can decide which of the line's 24 channels to devote for voice and which ones for data transmission. A Fractional T1 offers partial bandwidth as a percentage of the full transfer rate. Under a Burstable T1 the customer pays based on access, while the bandwidth of a Bonded T1 is greater than the sum of the bandwidths of multiple T1's that make up a pipeline.

In summary, a T1 connection offers a high speed digital transmission network which fulfills the company's voice and data transmission needs. It is much more secure and a lot cheaper than using multiple telephone lines. The cost is obviously higher than an ordinary telephone line, so T1 may not be suitable for residential or single user purposes.