[BBLISA] Telecommunications Recommendations...

[Robert Keyes]

On Mon, 12 Jul 2010, Richard 'Doc' Kinne wrote:

> Good Morning, Folks:
>
> I'm in the midst of taking a look at re-doing our internet service. We
> currently have a sychronous DS1 line (1.5Mbps in and out) which, being
> the non-profit we are, has been all we've been able to afford based on
> what we have. This DS1 line, with 24 routable internet addresses costs
> us about $600 month. If I go to a 36 month contract I can get it down
> to $450 or so.
>
> However, we're now in a position where we need a much larger download
> pipe than an upload pipe, so I started taking a look at asynchronous
> solutions. Taking a look at Comcast they were able to offer me 20Mbps
> down and 2Mbps up and 13 (down from 24) IP addresses for about
> $95/month.
>
> Now even if that 20Mbps down actually turns out to be, say, 5Mbps down
> there is still a night and day difference in the cost. It is such a
> large difference that I'm trying to figure out what I am fundamentally
> missing. Based on what I know know I can't think I could make any
> other recommendation to my Director. And I can't think how any other
> service, including the one I have now, remains competitive.
>
> I feel I'm missing something fundamental here. What are the
> experiences anyone on the list have had?

Have you looked into FiOS? I've had it since winter and it seems pretty 
reliable. It's a lot less hassle than bridge-taps and other BS that comes 
along with DSL. But I should mention I am using this at home. For 
critical, net-facing infrastructure I'd recommend a colocated or rented 
server (I prefer the latter). I am getting more bandwidth than I could 
ever use (unmetered 10mbps) and good latency for $30/month, in datacenter 
that hasn't had an outage in the three years I've used them. I was also 
able to get BGP routing for no extra charge.

I haven't tried this yet, but were I running an office where Internet 
connectivity was absolutely critical, I'd consider getting a a wireless 
tertiary  backup (WiMAX or cellular), in case a manhole catches fire, 
et cetera, taking out whatever wireline Internet you're using from 
primary and secondary Internet connectivity. I have one of those Virgin 
Mobile USB cellular modems, available for prepaid use, in the event 
something horrible happens to my net connectivity at home in the middle of 
some critical task.

-Bob