What is a T1 line and what's it used for ?  

T1 Definition:  T1 is a member of the T Carrier family. Originally called a T1.5, the "T" was used by AT&T to distinguish between a terrestrial network as opposed to satellite. T1 is a standard 1.544Mbps (Megabits or million bits per second) carrier system used to transport 24 "time division multiplexed" (TDM) 64 Kbps (Kilobits or thousand bits per second) channels (DS0's) of voice or data services, using pulse code modulation, from one point to another. 

Often interchanged carelessly with the term "DS1" or "Digital Signal One", there is an important technical difference. The "T Carrier" (T1) is the type of transmission system. The T Carrier can be any terrestrial network capable of carrying the 1.544 Mbps signal, including wire, which was the original medium, fiber and microwave radio. The "DS1" is the electrical signal that carries the information, and it conforms to DS1 "physical layer" electrical standards for voltage, pulse shape, etc.. 

This DS1 signal carries the information in various DS1 formatted frame patterns including D1, D2, D3, D4, DCT, ESF, etc., and is digitally encoded within the Pulse Code Modulation using either B8ZS or AMI coding techniques. The wire T Carrier (T1) carries the DS1 frames over a -135 Volt four-wire circuit, two wires for transmit and two wires for receive. T1 is the standard carrier for the United States.

A T1's use of voice or data determines the variables of framing format and digital line encoding. The 24 channels within the T1 can be split into any combination of voice and N x 64 Kbps data, up to a total of 1.544 Mbps.  If all channels of the T1 are not used, this is called a Fractional T1 (FT1). 

What's a T1 used for ?

• Dedicated T1 Internet access - A dedicated T1 connection to the Internet is a high speed connection that is always on.  It's comprised of a T1 local loop that takes you to the ISP's Point of Presence (POP) and a full T1 speed connection to the Internet at the POP. Unlike dial-up, DSL, cable or satellite, dedicated Internet access carries a Service Level Agreement (SLA) that guarantees at least 99.9% of the T1 bandwidth will be available to you at least 99.9% of the time or you will be refunded for a portion or all of the days on which full access was not achieved. Unlike all the other mentioned types of Internet access, dedicated access, properly delivered, is never shared, thus always providing you with maximum speed that should rarely be subject to the slow downs shared services experience at peak hours.

• Dedicated T1 Long Distance Service - Bypass the local telephone company by leasing a T1 local loop directly to your long distance carrier's switch. You can save a bundle this way. See this illustration.

• T1/PRI Local Service - If you have lots of phone lines, T1 PRI local service is an alternative to using many individual pairs of wires to bring in all those phone lines. One PRI T1 carries 23 voice lines over one set of 4 wires. There are other advantages as well, such as digital quality, fast call setup and, sometimes, access to better local and/or long distance rates. See this illustration.

• Private Line - a private dedicated "inter-office" circuit that is always on and is used to carry voice and/or data between 2 locations. Businesses, ISP's, local and long distance telephone companies use private lines T1's to carry voice, data or a combination thereof from one location to another. See this illustration.

• Local Loop - A local loop is the "last mile" or last leg of the route required to deliver service to and from the telephone company, ISP, cable company or other service provider's central office or head end equipment. In the case of a long distance or local service T1, the local loop is a private line that you lease for a flat monthly fee which delivers service to and from your local or long distance carrier's switch. 

• Frame Relay - A packetized data service/protocol used for private networking and local loop transmission protocol for access to the public Internet. See this illustration.

A long distance T1 can be used to lower the cost of long distance service by removing the cost of one of the three legs of every long distance call. When you make a long distance call from a standard telephone line, the call is first originated by your local telephone company and switched to your long distance carrier to carry the "long haul" portion of the call. The long distance carrier then carries the call to the terminating local telephone company who rings the phone on the remote end and carries the call over the "last mile" to the recipient of the call.

 The local telephone companies on each end charge the long distance carrier to originate and terminate the call. Let's say each local telephone company in this example charged the long distance (LD) carrier 1.5 cents (per minute) to originate and terminate the calls, and the long distance carrier's cost to carry the call over his network was 2 cents. The LD carrier's total cost for the call is 5 cents per minute, and if he sold it to you at 6 cents per minute, then his profit is 1 cent. If you could cut out your local telephone company's role in switching the telephone call to your long distance carrier by getting a telephone line that goes directly to your long distance carrier's switch, then you would save 1.5 cents per minute on each call, or, even more.

Because T1 long distance customers are volume users, which helps drive down the cost of the long distance carrier's network, the LD portion of the call may be discounted as well. You might wind up paying 1.5 cents per minute from this long distance carrier. So, how how do you do this ?

Long distance carriers (IXCs) place most of their switches in local telephone company Central Offices (CO's) where the local phone company also has a switch. These switches sit side by side and are connected together by trunks. This situation is called a "tandem". A long distance call from a standard telephone line first goes to the local phone company's (local exchange carrier or 'LEC' ) switch, where he passes the call over a trunk to the LD carrier's tandem switch and charges him an origination fee.

Instead of using standard lines that go directly to your local phone company's switch, you can lease a T1 "local loop" from your local telephone company (or competing local provider) that goes from your premises directly to the long distance carrier's switch. This circuit or "pipe" is leased to you for a flat monthly fee, the amount of which is determined by the distance of the circuit. It is completely private, always on (dedicated) and belongs entirely to you.

Who Should Use T1 Long Distance?

Generally speaking, the rule of thumb is if your long distance bill is over $2000 per month (or about 30,000 minutes/month) then you should consider a T1. The actual amount varies depending on your distance from the nearest "co-located" or tandem central office, which determines the local loop cost, the difference between "switched" and dedicated rates, the cost as compared to standard lines from your local phone company, and associated fees charged by the local and long distance providers. You also need to purchase or lease special equipment to for your office to multiplex (mux) and demux the 24 voice channels.

What are the costs involved in switching to T1?

• Local Loop monthly recurring charge plus install fee.

• Cost to lease, buy or upgrade Customer Premise Equipment (CPE).

• Installation Labor

• Minimum volume commitment if applicable.

Local Loop - Please submit the above form to get an exact quote or click here for an estimate in your City / State. The least you will ever pay for a T1 local loop is around $100 per month. $200 is really cheap. If your office is very far from the CO, you could pay as much as $1200 per month or more in some parts of the US. $200 - $700 is the normal range in any metro area. When you wish to buy dedicated service from TeleDeal, we will get you the local loop quote from the long distance company you select. Although you can lease your local loop independently from your long distance carrier, it is usually more convenient and cost effective to let your long distance carrier get the loop for you, and your long distance calls and loop charges come on one bill from one company. Installation charges are usually a couple hundred dollars but are often waived on a 1, 2 or 3 year term.

Equipment - Multiplexer equipment and a Channel Service Unit (CSU) are required to interface the T1 line to your telephone system. This equipment comes in two forms. These days most companies have modern digital telephone systems.  Your system must be equipped with the capacity to handle T1 lines. If it is, you buy or lease T1 and CSU cards. The T1 cards often have an integrated CSU. The main purpose of a CSU is to insulate your equipment from the phone company's line so that a mishap on one side of the CSU doesn't damage the equipment on the other side. You will also usually need some type of ancillary cards and possibly software or firmware upgrades for the phone system. Consult your equipment or service vendor to find out exactly what you will need.

If you don't have a digital telephone system, then you can use an external multiplexer, more commonly referred to as a "channel bank".  You can lease a channel bank for one T1 for between $75-$150 per month depending on the term. You may purchase a refurbed unit installed for as little as $2200. Refurbished equipment is very plentiful in the telecom industry.

Labor - Obviously you need to pay someone to install the equipment and necessary wiring. This is a good point to mention that the telephone company only delivers service to the "demarcation point" or "demarc" in or on the building.  If you have, or will have, 4 unused wires coming from the demarc to your equipment, you likely won't have to install additional ones unless the wires are old or in poor condition.

Volume Commitment - Some long distance carriers make you commit to using a certain dollar volume of service per month to get their best rate. TeleDeal offers a generous Volume Commitment deal.

What are the cost benefits of using a T1?

• Reduced long distance rates.

• No subscriber line charge (EUCL) charge.

• No PICC fee.

Reduced long distance rates - dedicated interstate rates can be as low as $.0095 per minute for high volume users at TeleDeal.

No subscriber line charge (EUCL) charge - You local telephone company charges you a "subscriber line charge" also known as EUCL charge on each individual line for access to your long distance carrier. This charge varies from $5-10 per line depending on the state. 

No Presubscribed Interexchange Carrier Charge (PICC) - Amazingly in addition to the EUCL charges the local phone company receives, the long distance carriers are forced by law to pay a PICC fee on each business line to your local phone company, which is basically for the same purpose as the EUCL charge. The norm is between $2.75 - $4.25 per business line. Incidentally, it might interest you a bit to know that the long distance carriers only have to pay the local phone company as little as a penny for this fee while they are charging you the $2.75 - $4.25 per line and putting the difference in their pockets and lying to you about it the whole time. This is a huge profit center for them, and if you call the long distance carrier up and ask them why they are charging the amount they do, their customer service reps will lie, because they aren't trained truthfully, and they will tell you they charge that amount because the FCC mandated that they charge you that amount. That's not true at all. The FCC mandated that the long distance carriers could collect a fee, if they wanted, in order to be reimbursed for what they had to pay the LEC. When this fee was first introduced, the FCC recommended amounts to collect which were close to what the LD carriers had to pay, but over time this fee has been very greatly reduced and now the carrier pays far, far less but they aren't telling you that. They have never been required to collect any PICC fee from you at all.

What are the other benefits of T1 Long Distance?

• Digital all the way to your doorstep or desktop provides excellent quality.

• Fast call set up time. Digital calls are set up more quickly than analog lines.

• Faster modem or data connections on individual lines.

• ANI and DNIS caller ID and call routing features.

• Ability to "least cost route" calls between Switched LD and Dedicated LD (for example TeleDeal's International Rates). You'll service technician will need to program these routes into your system.

Two nice features of T1 service are ANI and DNIS.

• ANI—Automatic Number Identification. SS7 (signaling system 7) feature that  identifies the number of the calling party. ANI does not work the same way as caller ID. With ANI you will be able to see the number of the calling party regardless of whether or not they have their caller ID blocked on outbound calls. This is how 911 knows your telephone number even when it's blocked from being sent. It's how credit card companies know it's you calling to activate your new credit card when you dial that toll free activation number. They or any other company who has ANI can see your telephone number unless your local telephone company does not support this feature, which is rare.  By identifying the calling number, your company can route calls to the appropriate customer service representative. It also provides your company with invaluable customer information and calling statistics so they can track and analyze the source of your business, and focus resources on growth areas.

• DNIS—Dialed Number Identification Service, also known as the called party number. This information can be used to tell your PBX or Key System how to route the outgoing call and also track dialed calls and generate statistics for analysis.