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You should consider a business T1 line if your business could benefit from a highly reliable phone and Internet service that may reduce your overall telecom costs. If your business has more than seven individual phone lines and your employees use the Internet, your business is a good candidate to reduce expenses with a business T1 line.

What Exactly is a T1 Line?

A T1 line is a dedicated line carrying digital data between your business and your phone company's customer office. It has a bandwidth of 1.544 Mbps that you can imagine as being divided into 24 channels.

When a business T1 line is devoted to phone service, it can process 24 concurrent external phone calls. Each call is transmitted on a separate "channel" or segment of the data stream. Your T1 line and your internal phone lines connect to a PBX device that is your private branch exchange--like your own phone company. The PBX allows internal calling with a 3 or 4 digit extension, provides functions like voice mail, call waiting, hunt groups, music on hold, and other features. Your PBX also handles 24 external calls simultaneously. For many businesses this will handle the external calling requirements of a hundred or more staff.

Another adaptation of T1 is T1 PRI which is used in customer service centers where customer reps review customer records with your customers. With T1 PRI, there are 23 voice channels and a data channel that can be attached to a server. When a customer calls, the caller ID information is passed to the server which pulls up and displays the customer record on the computer screen of the customer representative as they are answering the incoming call.

Your business T1 line can be dedicated to Internet access. You could plug the T1 line into a card in your LAN server to provide a throughput of 1.544 Mbps to the Internet. This bandwidth is equal to 30 to 60 dialup connections (depending on the dialup line quality). Because the T1 line is digital, there is no reduction in quality caused by crosstalk or line noise.

Alternately, your T1 line can integrate both phone and Internet services. You would devote a certain number of "channels" to phone service and the rest to the Internet. An additional card in the PBX streams the Internet data to an interface card in your LAN server. This is a popular option for numerous small and medium sized businesses.

How Will You Cut Costs With a Business T1 Line?

Think about a business that desires to replace their existing individual phone lines and their Internet service provider with a T1 line. The main reduction in expenses is due to the elimination of the monthly charges for the individual phone lines as well as your Internet access expenses.

Your ongoing costs will include a monthly lease expense for the T1 line and phone charges which come bundled with the T1 line. Your cost for a T1 line chiefly depends on the distance between your business and the phone company's customer office. Additionally, there will be one time charges for the PBX device and other interface devices and cabling that your particular physical layout requires. There will also be continuing maintenance fees related to the PBX and other devices.

Many small and medium businesses find a T1 line to be an excellent means to reduce expenses as well as give higher quality and dependability to their customers and employees. You ought to get a business T1 line quote to see if this is an effective choice for your business.