What’s better than a T1 in your home? Two T1s
Broadband access is the driver behind the smooth operation of many households, I know with 9 computers in mine it’s a big part of our world. I have been using a cable modem for years and even though I’ve seen the bandwidth upgraded over time it can still suffer from occasional "overcrowding". It’s particularly noticeable in the evenings as folks get home from work and begin jumping online. The only way around that is to install a dedicated data line like a T1. Or better yet, two T1s. Covad is rolling out a new service for home & small businesses that uses two T1 lines bonded together to provide double the bandwidth of a singe T1. When they asked me to evaluate this new service how long do you think it took me to say yes? Nope, not that long.
The dual T1s have been run to the house and yesterday a very nice Covad tech came to my home office and got everything hooked up. I have only been using it for a few hours in total but it has been powering my home network with rock solid bandwidth since it went live. I hooked the Airport Extreme wireless router to the Cisco router that Covad supplied and we are seeing no latency issues or speed dips as you would expect from such horsepower. Prior to the install I expected to see the biggest speed increase for uploads as the dual T1 pipe is full throttle both ways and I haven’t been disappointed with that for sure. I upload a lot of audio and video recordings and this improved upload bandwidth is going to save me literally hours each month. Here’s a typical bandwidth speed test I just ran:
I’m cooking now! 
This will spoil you when you go mobile. The next thing is WiMax or XOHM from Sprint with 4G speeds. It will roll out next year. I know it is always hard going from a fast connection to a slower one. Hopefully this will help you churn out more video reviews now that you have the bandwidth.
Thanks,
Joshua A. Hall
The upload is really nice. I have mid-speed VDSL from u-Verse and get 2500 to 2900 kbps down consistently but only about 900 kbps up. since I do not do a lot of uploads like you do, it is very nice for me. As soon as I get a job again, I will spend the $10 more per month and get the 6Mbps down speed. I also tried out the ATT Hot Spot that I am “entitled” to as a subscriber in McDonalds in Burnet, TX and it was quite acceptable and free.
thanks for your work and reports
..wiley
NW Houston, TX
You make me sick. RASBERRYS
Is there any pricing information on it? I’m curious…
BTW – looking forward to meeting you guys at Barcamp.
You can get pricing on their website by searching for your address. For me, it would cost around $700/month. I think I can live with my DSL line…
DSL is, just like the T1, a dedicated connection to the ISP so you don’t have to share it, as you do cable.
We have a very nice local ISP that does ADSL2+. The only negative is the 1MBit upload speed, but the 24Mbit downspeed is rather nice.
Just out of curiosity, are those numbers considered the norm for T1?
I’m at work here (not exactly sure, I’m told it’s 100MB Ethernet). I ran the same speed test at http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest and got:
Last Result:
Download Speed: 34810 kbps (4351.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 2761 kbps (345.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
A T1 is if memory serves 1.544 mbit (it’s a US type of line, so not something I’ve ever seen personally). Combine two of those and you get roughly 3.
Wikipedia as usual has some info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-carrier
The chief benefit here (for a residential user) would be getting 3mbit up, which would beat ADSL and Cable handily on that. Still, I think I prefer my 24Mbit down, even with just 1 up.
Can I move in with you?
Raphael, those sound like T2 or T3 numbers to me. Yowza!
Rodfather- sure, rent is one T1/ month.
Richard Yoo, you in Houston?
Wiley, you going to BarCamp on Saturday?
Last Result:
Download Speed: 7271 kbps (908.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 1735 kbps (216.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
I guess I can’t complain abt the local cable service…for the $30 a month fee.
TM
Let’s see, here in Seattle:
$1600 CISCO router
$809 a month
3 year contract
Waive the $450 install fee if I order NOW.
I think I’d be better off bonding together some DSL lines.
I would absolutely love to simply get 100 k download speeds. Some of us lowly people out there are still stuck on dial-up. Great for the companies that are pushing these speed barriers, but I would really like to see them spread out to areas where people dont have any choice in their internet. I’d kill for a plain old DLS line running to my house.
We have Covad T1 for our design office and its a big improvement over the flakey DSL we had from SBC. Since ordering this 7 months ago there’s been zero downtime and the 1.5Mps up is a big difference when we ftp big client files.
Our DSL connection would drop every day it seems and we never managed to get more than 160kbps up despite paying for a 384kpbs service.
Covad has us on a 2 year contract. We are paying $419. Do you know if they will let us upgrade to the two T’s without breaking the contract?
Steve, nope I have no idea. This is a new service and they haven’t said anything, just installed it.
This is a good article about T1 internet service because broadband communications is the future of internet technology at http://www.1-satellite-tv-facts.com/T1-Internet-Service.html