Frequently Asked Questions about Telecommunications

No! We are your advocate and do not charge for our consultation services. The carriers we work with will take care of all of our compensation. However, we do not carry a quota with any carrier, so we are not obligated to sell one service over another. This allows us to be completely carrier/vendor agnostic and provide unbiased service to you.

Let us get you the answer. Provide us with your company addresses and we will take a look at our fiber map and not only let you know if it is available, but what vendors work out of your building to provide you with the most competitive offering.

This opens up the door to two questions from us: 1) How much do you depend on your network for day to day business activities? 2) What applications are you running over your network? – However, the simple answer is this: If you are running any business critical applications that would cripple your business if they weren’t working properly, you definitely want to consider a dedicated circuit(fiber or T1).

Just click on this link: http://www.speedtest.net and click “Begin Test” and this site will provide you with your current bandwidth and latency upload and download speeds.

 

Let us research this for you. Just submit your companies info on our “contact page” and we will respond promptly with all of your options for your current location.

Fiber offers faster speeds, higher reliability, and more efficient upgrade capabilities versus copper/coax. This is due to fiber lines ability to maintain performance without degradation(20 miles +) and having greater capacity(which equates to better-more consistent performance). DSL/Coax are both distance sensitive and while Coax can match the bandwidth(in some scenarios)of fiber, it is delivered over a shared network with limited capacity which can affect the performance. Most business class fiber solutions deliver service level assurances that traditional DSL/Coax cannot match.

This varies by location. We will work with the carrier directly and third party wiring companies to determine the best way to bring fiber to your building, and at what cost.

The major difference between DSL and cable is how it is delivered to your location. Traditional DSL is installed on existing copper pairs(same cabling used for traditional phone service/POTS lines) while traditional cable is installed on coax cabling. Cable usuallyBoth services are typically asymmetrical(faster downloads/slower uploads) and are their speeds are not guaranteed.

Service Level Assurances(SLA’s) are performance guarantees that service providers align with their products. SLA’s vary by provider so it is always recommended that you review them before making a decision, especially if you will be running business critical applications on the service.

In telecommunications, bandwidth represents the data transfer rate of your network connection. The most common bandwidth speeds are measured in the millions of bits per second(you will see this as Mbps) or billions of bits per second(Gbps).
While bandwidth does play a part in your network performance, it is not the only aspect of your network that you should be aware of. Packet Loss, Latency, and Jitter all play a part in your overall network performance.
Latency is determined by how much time it takes for a packet of data to get from one point to another. Carriers measure latency by sending a packet that is returned to the sender and the round-trip time is considered the latency. The lower the number, the better the performance.

Jitter is the variation in the latency on a packet when traveling between destinations where some packets take longer to complete the trip.   Jitter can be a result of things such as network congestion and route changes.  Jitter will not affect normal internet usage, but if you are running realtime applications such as video conferencing or voice, jitter can affect the quality.  It can also affect a remote worker trying to connect to a remote desktop or VDI(virtual desktop infrastructure).

Packet loss is when one or more transmitted packets fail to reach their destination.  Packet loss can be caused by many different underlining issues such as signal strength, hardware failure, software corruption or over utilized network nodes. When you are working with traditional data, packet loss produces errors.  Packet loss can create jitter when using applications such as video conferencing and VoIP (Voice over internet protocol).

Ping is the reaction time of your connection or how fast you get a response after initiating a ping. The faster the response, the better the connection. A fast, responsive connection, is important where timing is everything such as video games. Ping is measured in milliseconds(ms).

This depends on the type of connection you have and the existing equipment. Reach out to us and let us know what you have today and we will help you determine the most efficient way to increase your speed.

Connectivity Services

  • Business Class DSL
  • Cable
  • Fiber
  • T1

Network Services

  • MPLS
  • IPSEC VPN
  • WiFi Access Points
  • Dedicated Internet Access

Cloud Computing

  • IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)
  • PaaS (Platform as a Service)
  • CaaS (Communications as a Service)
  • SaaS (Software as a Service)
  • XaaS (Everything as a Service)