Vergent Blog: T1 Service, MPLS, VoIP, and Hosted IP PBX-

SIP Trunking Growth in the SMB Market

SIP Trunk deployment is expected to grow from 8.5 million SIP trunks in 2009 to 24.3 million trunks in 2013, and many of those trunks will be deployed in small-medium businesses. SIP trunking is a technology that allows businesses to cheaply and easily implement voice over IP (VoIP) across the organization. According to the Heavy Reader Insider, 31 percent of businesses are currently using some type of VoIP technology, but experts expect that number will increase to 74 percent by 2013.

Experts attribute the growing popularity of SIP trunking to the significant cost savings and ease of deployment the technology inherently provides. SIP trunking saves money by eliminating the need to invest in Base Rate Interfaces (BRIs), Primary Rate Interfaces (PRIs), PSTN gateways, and additional line cards.

Last Updated (Tuesday, 27 July 2010 17:57)

FCC Redefines "Broadband"

July 21, 2010

The FCC is redefining the term "broadband" for the purpose of gathering statistics. Previously, anything higher than 200kbps was considered broadband. Today, that number has jumped to 4mbps.

The change means that T1 Service and Wireless 3G broadband is, by the FCC's definition, no longer broadband. In this way, the FCC can claim that "broadband is not being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion," which is exactly what FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said earlier this week. Critics such as Gary Kim argue that the new definition is disingenuous and is designed to create a new problem so that it can prove a new solution is needed. Read more about the FCC's new broadband definition here.

Last Updated (Tuesday, 27 July 2010 17:58)

T1 Service or DSL for Business?

Business owners tasked with providing phone and Internet service to their employees often wonder what’s better—T1 Service or DSL? Even though on the surface, DSL appears to provide roughly the same bandwidth as T1 for less money, a dedicated T1 line is preferable to DSL for many reasons.

First and foremost, T1 service is much more reliable than DSL. Most T1 service contracts come with a Service Level Agreement (SLA) that guarantees a certain amount of uptime (usually 99.999%), 24/7 tech support, and fast response times in the event of an outage. DSL comes with no such service guarantees. Any business who cannot afford to risk a significant Internet or email outage (sometimes 48 hours or more) should not rely on DSL for connectivity.

Last Updated (Tuesday, 27 July 2010 17:57)