Bandwidth in Little Rock, AR?

ioctl asks: "My company needs a 45Mb link from mid-town Little Rock, AR (University exit, I-630) to North Little Rock, AR (Wildwood exit, I-167). Our telco doesn't have any glass in the area, and wants about $800K over the next 5 years to build it out. We looked at another local provider who has the buildout already done, but their tech didn't show for the initial meeting (My boss: "He forgot it?!?!"). We've also looked into doing wireless via TCBY Tower (Proxim Tsunami or Aeras Networks Wavelink), but they are > $80K, plus rooftop space. Does bandwidth have to be this expensive? Are there any other possible solutions?"

Comments

Do you really need 45Mbps?

[Keyoke]

I'm not familiar with the area, but you can MUX a handful of Ts together I suppose. If your still in the 0-mile area of a provider, that might not be too horribly expensive. I don't know what Ts cost out there tho. If you don't need more'n about 10Mbps, this might work. I think the most I've ever seen MUX'd is 8 Ts.

Re:Uhm...

[Doco]

DS3 does run over copper - but it can't over twisted pair. It is generally run using coax cable, and not exactly the cable-tv type of coax either. The equipment is set up for a 75ohm impedance, and expects repeaters on a regular basis. If the cable isn't already there - you might as well run fiber as it will be cheaper because of fewer repeaters and give you more bandwidth.

Time Warner

[austad]

Have you checked into Time Warner?

They have Metro Area ethernet in a lot of major cities, and pricing is damn good. Here in Minneapolis, I can do gigabit Fibre Channel between offices. Now that's just damn cool. Not sure about little rock, but it may be worth looking into. Time Warner Telecom has the benefit of being able to use Time Warner Cable's right-of-way. Which means that when they run fiber, they don't have to get permits and go through as much hassle because in the early 80's cable companies were granted huge rights which allowed them to pretty much run cable wherever they pleased without having to get permits. And, if your location makes business sense to TW, they will finance the cost of the install (like if there are other large potential customers in your building).

Although, for the recurring monthly cost of a link like this, after 10 to 12 months, you could have just paid for that wireless solution you were looking at. Keep in mind 802.15.3 wireless is coming out soon too, which will drop costs dramatically.