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BROADBAND You’ll be aware of Broadband. For most people it’s synonymous with the Internet and the need for "faster response". Typically involving the down-loading of information including articles, video, graphics … It seemed an age in arriving and in the meanwhile people made do with dial-up connections and ISDN. Possibly you suffered from some horrendous bills because you were charged by connection time. A major reason why people switched to a broadband service - with Unlimited Internet Access. This article though is focussed on the business need and use of Broadband rather than personal use. Typical applications are: The rapid growth in usage of
broadband services between a company, its suppliers, customers and
not forgetting its staff has resulted in the need for greater
Bandwidth.
Bandwidth The minimum specification for Broadband is a Bandwidth of 256kbit/sec in at least one direction. Much higher bandwidths are now advertised and in general the higher the bandwidth the higher the cost. However all is not as it seems and you need to be aware of two things … A quoted bandwidth of 512kbit/s is actually the download speed, the upload being only 256kbit/s. As the majority of home users download information rather than upload it this is not really an issue. However for business users with two-way communication it’s an important consideration. The advertised bandwidth is not always experienced by the customer. Internet Service Providers, (ISP’s), often assume that not every one of their customers will be "online" at the same time. So when most are the ISP’s backbone connection cannot provide the quoted bandwidth. SDSL The standard Broadband service is Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, (ADSL). A more recent standard is Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line, (SDSL). This differs to ADSL in that SDSL has the same "upload or upstream" data transfer rate as "download or downstream"- hence symmetrical. Whilst ADSL always has smaller upstream bandwidth - hence asymmetrical. There is a big demand from businesses for the new SDSL service to improve overall performance of the network. Unfortunately though SDSL is only available in parts of the UK and frustratingly you may find that one of your offices can get the SDSL service and another cannot. Bonded ADSL An alternative when SDSL is not available, Bonded ADSL doubles, triples or quadruples the upload & download speeds. Simply put two or more ADSL lines are bonded together. Because the upload speed is also increased a dual Bonded ADSL solution offers a significant advantage over a 1Mbit single ADSL connection for a slightly higher cost. And you can upgrade to triple/quadruple if the extra bandwidth is needed in the future. Broadband Max A recently launched service from BT is ADSLMAX. This provides a download service of up to 8Mb/s with typical speed of 6.5Mb/s. Upload speeds are typically 448Kb/s and 832Kb/s with Premium Max. It’s also possible and practicable, (according to your budget) to bond Broadband Max. For more information on Broadband services … Email me at Practice Net or call on 029 2083 7410
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