A Quality Internet Connection

A quality Internet connection is more than just high megabits per second or Megs as it is often written.  Just last week we consulted a customer who had switched from a T1 with 1.5 megabits to a cable provider that provided “Up To 20 megabits,” but he did this with out the help of a telecom expert.  At first every one was very amazed by how fast they were able to download information from the Internet.  It is a fact that a 20 megabit connections is 13 times faster than a 1.5 megabit connection.  However, what our customer did not know at the time of his switch is that his new circuit was not a dedicated speed product.  It clearly stated in the paper work that it was up to 20 megs down and up to on the upload but what must be understood is that up to or best effort bandwidth Internet speed can vary a lot in quality and speed.  Sometimes is is super fast sometimes it is really slow!

The other factor was that with his previous 1.5 megabit connection  his latency usually never exceeded 20 milliseconds, yet when we tested the cable connection that he had chosen his latency varied from 10ms all the way up to 120 ms.  So even though the cable connection in theory was faster, the poor latency made it a poor performing circuit.  Latency is critical when a customer is utilizing a VoIP telephone system.  Poor latency performance makes phone conversation impossible.  After we finished our consultation we realized that the best solution was to go back to a dedicated and guaranteed Internet speed for the VoIp phone system and that the faster connection was sutible as a back-up for Internet usage but not as a primary connection specially since this customers phone system was a VoIP phone system.

It is critical to remember that the quality of a circuit is measured by more than just speed and that you get the right circuit that will help accomplish your business goals.  What your business needs is the highest quality connection at the best price not the “cheapest” connection.  Going with the cheapest is often be more expensive.

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