I would like to have a discussion about T1

You can look at business class DSL and cable products. Or get a DS3. The thing with a T1 is the upload speed. Your standard DSL/Cable product will be 1/3 to 1/2 as fast in terms of upload.

I get 1.5MB at the house -

T1 upload is about the same.

I will check out DS3 - I just think T1 is way over priced - I pay 125 bucks at the house for TV, internet (10Mb down, 1.5 up)

Seems silly to me.

A ds-3 will be quite expensive and would require you buying equally expensive equipment to terminate it and i doubt you need 45 megs of throughput or want to spend 3000 to 8000 a month for it.  Maybe a fractional ds3 or something....  Business class connections cost for a reason.  They usually come with an sla that guarantees and committed rate up and down, as well as gauranteed uptime.  You may be best served by a set of bonded t1's a fiber connection that could get you around 10meg for 1000-1800 or so dollars a month.  You can generally get a connection from you cable company (like a 2by2 or a 5by2) for arouund 200 to 600 a month.  Or if your uptime or your upload doesn't mean much to you, go with a dsl or lesser connection.
HTH
Jason

I guess just like anyone else cutting cost is always a plus. I think we pay right around 800 something bucks a month for T1. But, we do have a location out of state and several remote workers. I will take a look at the bonded t1's. T3 is way over kill for us for sure.

Naw - When I first started working here about 4 years ago they used a managed router service - I have been wanting to go to unmanaged. But, being the only IT person here I kind of got to spread my duties out and if something can be managed somewhere else so be it. But, since I have been here I have finally straightened everything out and I am ready to move towards unmanaged router and bump the speed up. Looks like I will probably go with the bonded t1's.

Ok - that explains the price. Don't discount managed - it can take a lot off your plate if you can afford it. I'm thinking about moving to managed.

Depending where you are you may be able to get one of the new MetroE IP solutions. These promise to have the reliability of T1 closer to the price/performance of cable.

It just seem like a big deal to move to unmanaged to me - I dont know though never been there. This is the first time in my career were I had to wear all that "IT Hats" in the company. I could be completely wrong though and it could be a nightmare - I will check out that MetroE IP also. Thanks

It won't be a nightmare - T1 is very reliable. You will have to learn more to support it. Document the circuit id, support phone number. Correct state for lights on T1 terminator card and router. Learn how to test/diagnose a Cisco (or other) router. Learn what "loopback" means and how to implement it with your hardware...

You can do it. Lots of people do. I do. It's just not a no-brainer. Weigh where you want to spend your learning time. Choose the best place for you and your company.

I see this was back in June but will throw in a couple of comments.  I've had a number of different solutions in over 20 years.  T1 is definitely reliable, but today's business requirements bog down in the 1.5M download / 1.5M upload environment.  I've recently been paying about $400 per month for a T1 which we use for 'utilities'  and $200 for a Comcast Business secondary pipe for users.  I've been getting 13M down and 2M up, so the additional bandwidth has been decent.  We have just had FiOS installed in our neighborhood, so we have had Business FiOS installed and are transitioning to it. Business FiOS gives us (as much as) 50M down and 20M up.  Cost is about $230 per month (with 13 fixed ips).  The T1 will go away and I will then decide whether to keep Comcast for redundancy.

It's been great that we have been able to continually see price decreases and opportunities for more speed to support new file transfer and video requirements.  It really helps productivity.