Telecommunications contracts can be much like a marriage and as we all know there are good and bad marriages. The fact is, when you enter into a telecommunications contract with a T1 provider for reasonalble amount of bandwidth or voice service you will have to enter into a long term contract. Telecommunications contracts for T1's and T3's typically range from 1 years to 3 years. Anything longer than a 3 year contract is usually only seen in very large applicatons like OC3 and OC12 or complex frame relay connections with many nodes. While the term of the contract will not be a problem if you have the right provider, the contract could prove extrememly burdomsome with the wrong provider.

We suggest using a broker to walk you through your options and show you the providers and services available. A broker or independent agent can help reduce the time it takes you to shop around for a T1 provider by asking you the questions once and searching through multiple providers to get the service that is right for you. The agent helps steer clear of the bias you will receive when speaking with one vendor as the agent will be paid no matter which service you choose. As the agent doesn't work with a specific provider like AT&T or Sprint, he or she will not push you in that direction if they are not right for you.

Remeber that the t1 provider you select will be your partner for quite some time so take caution in your decision. The worst part of being with a bad provider is the fact that it will affect your business. Dropped calls or an internet connection that goes down can be disastrous to a business. We found that the larger companies like AT&T and Sprint will release companies from long term contracts it if is shown that the voice or data T1 service was faulty on a regular basis, however the release from such a contract will not help recoup the damages of the lost calls and e-mails from the poor service. When shopping for a T1 provider we suggest using a broker and asking for referals from current customers to give you an indication of what you can expect.

Is a T1 connection better than a DSL connection? A more appropriate questions might be "Is a T1 connection MORE APPROPRIATE than a DSL connections. A T1 connection and DSL connection both offer bandwidth at high speed but have two factors that greatly differentiate them from one another. Those factors are price and realiability. A DSL connection has a low price and is less reliable than a T1 connection. A T1 is much more expensive than a DSL connection but is also much more reliable.

So are you looking for reliablity or price? 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, your connections is considered critical. A critical connection can be viewed much like a life line, 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, ciritcal connections should be supported with a T1 connection.

Many 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 connection unless then have a business reason to pay for such a circuit and cannot access DSL service. You may get lucky and find a T1 connections that is low cost which would give you both price and realiability but be careful. Many T1's sold for less than $600 are not truely dedicated circuits and are oversubcribed. In short, if price is your critical factor go with DSL. If reliability is the critical factor purchase a dedicated T1.