One of the questions we hear a lot from our small business customers who are new to shopping for business broadband is “what is the difference between T1 and DSL”.
On the surface DSL seems like an awesome option. The advertised speeds for DSL of 1.5 to 6 mbps are much more impressive than the steady 1.54 mbps that T1 offers.
When looking at advertised speed, DSL seems like the obvious choice. However when we look a little deeper we can see that those speed numbers are a little misleading.
DSL circuits are oversubscribed, meaning DSL users share their connection with others around them. Imagine that you are given two different options for driving to work. The first option is a 4-lane highway, shared by all of the drivers in your community, with a maximum speed limit of 75 MPH. During peak traffic hours the 75 MPH highway has bumper-to-bumper traffic and numerous delays. Instead of traveling at 75 MPH the traffic moves along slowly at 10 to 15 MPH.
The second option is your own personal roadway with a speed limit of 55 MPH. This road is used by only one person, YOU. There is no traffic, there are no stop signs, and there are no traffic lights. It’s just you and the freedom to drive up to 55 MPH whenever you want. With your personal highway you no longer leave your house wondering how much traffic there will be and how much it will slow you down. Instead you can rest assured that anytime you drive you will always be able to drive 55 mph.
The 75 MPH highway is DSL. Though it is advertised as having fast speeds the occurrences where subscribers actually enjoy those advertised speeds are rare. Instead the speed is divided among all of the users in your neighborhood who share one DSL line.
T1 is the 55 MPH personal highway. The maximum speed potential is significantly lower than DSL but it is NOT shared. The 1.54 mbps of speed is ALL YOURS every time.
Every business is unique and the best broadband option for your business really depends on what you plan to use your broadband for. At broadband.com we offer both services and our product recommendations vary depending on the broadband needs of our customers. To get a better idea of which service is right for your business check out the DSL and T1 pages at broadband.com or try out our live chat option on the top of our homepage to get real-time assistance from one of our broadband experts.
Except in today’s world your personal t-1 highway is 55mph v. the 4 lane 1000mph DSL. . .
Awesome way of explaining. Thanks 🙂
I know this article is old but I must say it was very well written and you did a fantastic job explaining the difference to the layman.
This is the way internet using cable works, not the way DSL works. With DSL each subscriber has a dedicated serice from there home to the DSlam. The distance between the subscriber and the DSlam effects the speed or rate the customer recieves, for instance a subscriber who is 20 meters may from the DSlam may get 12Mgb/s downstream while someone that is 3km away may get 6MGb/s. At the DSlam the DSL upstream ends (Downstream towards the subcriber starts) all the packets of information from each DSL line are sent to the internet over a highspeed facility today in most cases +1giga bit.
Idk how many ways I can say your wrong about dsl it is a individual circuit from start to finish