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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?"
The reason why is the control of resources, distribution... all of which boils down to WHO is able to PROVIDE. Business is ALWAYS getting "shafted" on cost. Makes sense, if selling something to your neighbor you'd rather assume he can afford less and in view of a potential entity on purchase; even the most level headed would be compelled to think the funds are unlimited. Look at how the Corporations overprice services and products to Governments.
OK, so what about T1 connections? The "garuntee" isn't real, no more real than is what is garunteed from any other type of connection. About the only reason a T1 is a garuntee is due to federal legislation. A T1, is, was and always will be, soley intended for packing PHONE lines on copper... not internet speeds. AT&T developed T1/DS1 technology so they wouldn't have to lay more copper. The fact is... as far as data transfer goes, the only garuntee ANY ISP can realistically give you is a data transfer rate of 9600 baud per second, which is the bare minimum federally required for VOICE COMMUNICATIONS across that line. So I don't have any links regarding this off the top of my head, but I'm sure someone here does have them.
T1's directly represent the phone structure, so their "garuntee" is in disregard to any marketing gimic and a result to government mandate. So, so goes the prospect that 800 a month for a T1 is due to it's so-called 'garuntee', first off, it's not a garuntee as a gesture of good will, but compliance to law; such a garruntee is implicit in nature otherwise someone is breaking the law. As long as you, or most people know this... the garuntee loses market value and becomes worthless for increasing sales.
What the high cost boils down to is speculation of intent.
With a T1 line, you have that much upstream bandwidth. Upstream bandwidth, by nature of being binary in operation, is no more expensive than downstream bandwidth... anyone who attempts to justify the contrary really is defying logic, in a most fundamental way. The real difference is, they want that upstream (philosophically, 'PROVIDING') to be restricted to BUSINESS. Otherwise, BUSINESS lose an objective, incentive, edge and ultimately, they lose CONTROL. So, the real cause of the high costs is the prospect that you SHOULD be a BUSINESS if you have the resources to PROVIDE as much.
There is no technical reason for higher costs... the electrons really don't give a hoot which why they are traveling down the wire. Because there's no real overwhelming technical, sysmtematic and logical method making it more difficult to send electrons in one direction than the other, there really is no resource-economic reason for the higher costs. The Cost is purely, speculation of intent.