What Internet teachnology makes best sense for today?The 21st Century tenant wants bandwidth, location -- and more bandwidth. As e-business moves into everyday life (think of all those ads with "www" addresses), tenants increasingly see high-speed Internet See broadband. access as an essential utility. Building owners need to prepare for the realities of market where tenants expect to have broadband access See broadband and wireless broadband. . This column is part of a monthly question-and-answer series on telecom- munication services designed to help real estate professionals compete for and retain tenants. Which high-speed Internet technologies make sense for businesses, and what are the differences between them? Internet access See how to access the Internet. technologies differ in availability, connection speed, set-up complexity and appropriateness for specific business purposes: * T-1 (or faster) Dedicated Line: These broadband lines download and upload 26 or more times faster than dial-up, making them ideal for use by e-businesses. Service can use fiber-optic cable where available, or wireless fiber, which sends signals between small rooftop antennas. * DSL DSL in full Digital Subscriber Line Broadband digital communications connection that operates over standard copper telephone wires. It requires a DSL modem, which splits transmissions into two frequency bands: the lower frequencies for voice (ordinary : Direct Subscriber Line The line from the customer site to the local telephone company. See subscriber network. uses ordinary copper wiring, but is only available within three miles of a phone company's central office. Downloading data speed varies with service price, from seven to 26 times faster than dial-up modems. Most forms of DSL upload data to the Net much more slowly than they download, a potential problem for companies running Internet server computers. * Satellite Modem: This service is of greatest interest where other broadband services. are unavailable. Current technology requires simultaneous use of a satellite signal and a phone connection to the Internet. Data speed is seven times faster than dial-up. * Cable Modem: Cable is suited only for the smallest businesses. Connection speed slows as activity on these shared lines increases, and line-sharing raises security concerns. An Internet server on a cable line could slow data traffic to a crawl. * ISDN ISDN in full Integrated Services Digital Network Digital telecommunications network that operates over standard copper telephone wires or other media. : Integrated Services Digital Network Integrated services digital network (ISDN) A generic term referring to the integration of communications services transported over digital facilities such as wire pairs, coaxial cables, optical fibers, microwave radio, and satellites. is no longer worthwhile for most businesses, due to set-up complexity and data speeds only two to three times faster than today's dial-up modems. Term of the Week: Downloading and Uploading -- Downloading means receiving data from another computer, while uploading means sending. data. When you surf the Internet, you download Web pages (heavy traffic), and up-load mainly mouse clicks (light traffic). If you host a Web site on your computer, you need a service that can handle heavy Web page uploading. Jack Robinson is Director, New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. Region, Winstar for Buildings. He welcomes questions for future columns (jrobinson@winstar.com or 212-584-3524). |
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