Why Are T1 Lines Still Expensive?

badfrog asks: "Over the last 10 years, DSL and cable modem has upped its speed (although in some instances only slightly) and dropped its price. However, the price of a T1 has stayed almost exactly the same. If you had asked me 10 years ago, I would have predicted any geek that wanted to would have fiber or their own T1 line to the house by now. What is with this sad state of affairs that a 'business class' 1.544Mbit connection is hundreds of dollars more than a 6Mbit cable connection? Is it a legitimate case that a high upload rate should increase cost so significantly?"

Comments

Re:It's marketing

[misleb]

I remember a story from a guy who ended up getting a really cheap T1 to his rural location by ordering 3 (or maybe it was 4?) POTS lines. Because each POTS line uses its own pair up to the CO and copper pairs are in limited supply, it is policy to just run a DS1 circuit for more than a certain number of POTS lines. Somehow he worked the system and ended up getting access to the whole 24 channels and got T1 internet service (minus the 3 channels for the POTS) for the cost of 3 POTS lines. Well, he had to pay the ISP for internet service, but the line itself was cheap.

Hmm, I wish I could remember all the details. It was an awesome story demonstrating just how messed up telephone billing is.

-matthew