Metro Ethernet is quickly becoming one of the more popular bandwidth services for businesses, especially those who need a large amount of bandwidth in mission-critical situation (that is, their business relies on their Internet access). Metro Ethernet helps provide an upgrade path from single or bonded T1 services at a great price level that even a few years ago wasn’t attainable.

Up until a few years ago, fiber-based bandwidth seemed to be reserved for large corporations, telcos and carriers, and educational institutions. T3 service and above was quite costly, leaving large bandwidth connections over budget for many businesses. On the lower end, some businesses moved to shared services such as DSL or cable modem in order to gain more speed. However, those moves do come with a few drawbacks – while pricing is more budget-friendly, those services have slower upload speeds than downloads, and don’t offer guaranteed performance or uptime.

When the Internet is a mission-critical application, T1 has traditionally been the service of choice for companies who need that guaranteed reliability. When speed became an issue, it was relatively easy to order more T1 lines to bring in more bandwidth and offer a larger overall connection by bonding the lines together (providing connectivity from 3Mbps up to 12Mbps) or by setting them up in a load-balancing configuration to handle more traffic from a larger number of users. Of course, when an upgrade is needed, there’s the wait time for the additional T1 lines to be ordered and installed, and sometimes new hardware was required as well.

What Metro Ethernet has done is provide businesses with reliable high speed bandwidth that also offers a nearly instant upgrade path if and when more speed is needed. The best part is that it offers these speeds at a fraction of the cost of traditional fiber like T3, or bonded T1 lines.

When a business factors in the cost of multiple T1 lines, for instance, once a company has 3 T1 lines installed for a total bandwidth of 4.5Mbps a 10Mbps Metro Ethernet connection usually comes in at the same monthly price, if not even less expensive while offering double the bandwidth. Once the Metro Ethernet is installed, upgrades up through 1Gbps to 10Gbps can take place in a matter of days, not weeks, without needing any additional hardware or installation work.

Who can benefit from Metro Ethernet?

Since so many more businesses are moving to SaaS, having reliable bandwidth is key – if your business is looking to work more with the cloud in any capacity, Metro Ethernet would provide a perfect connection. Unlike some of the asynchronous services mentioned above, Metro Ethernet provides the same speed in both directions, so users aren’t handcuffed by slow upload speeds when sending or transferring large amounts of data. A business that relies on the Internet for VoIP, email, data collaboration, and connections to remote locations is a prime candidate for Metro Ethernet services.

Private line Metro Ethernet is also available as well for companies that maintain a dedicated WAN in between their sites. Medical offices that share X-rays and images, along with private patient and insurance information will receive much better performance from private Metro Ethernet links vs. T1 lines. As their organizations grow, the private Metro Ethernet lines can easily be upgraded to provide the proper capacity needed to keep their employees productive and on-task.

Fiber’s no longer out of the reach of many businesses – if your company needs to rely on the Internet, and is noticing that speed and performance is not what it needs to be, consider Metro Ethernet for your Internet and private connectivity needs.

 

For more information about connecting multiple locations together, download our free eBook “Is T1 Service the Right Fit For Your Business?” to learn more about how a combination of access services, including guaranteed T1 service, can help your business. Reliable Internet access is critical when connecting multiple locations together, and our case studies in the book will help show you how we can help in almost any situation. Download the free eBook from MegaNet today!