5 ms·

When I first read this headline I had a flashback to the late 90's / early 2000's. It was a time when the term "T3" unambiguously meant only one thing: a blazi

When I first read this headline I had a flashback to the late 90's / early 2000's. It was a time when the term "T3" unambiguously meant only one thing: a blazing fast, very expensive, dedicated network connection! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-carrier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-carrier Then a few years later the even fatter optical pipes came along - OC1 and OC3 lines. My, how times change! ..Well, some things do. If you want a T3 line, they're still available, and today will cost you in the neighborhood of $3,000USD/month (down from $10-15K/month around Y2K). What a bargain :) https://www.google.com/search?q=how+much+does+a+t3+line+cost https://www.google.com/search?q=how+much+does+a+t3+line+cost

newman314 8y ago
I had the same exact thought except OC192 popped into my head =)
exikyut 8y ago
Wow, 45-90Mbps for $3k-$6k/mo.
- MichaelApproved 8y ago
  It's not only about the throughput, it's also about the SLA and sustainable throughput.
- chillidoor 8y ago
  When I started my IT career in South Africa the internet situation was pretty horrendous. ADSL/Broadband speeds were 384kbps and you had hard bandwidth caps of ~$7 per gigabyte of traffic on top of your line rental. Companies and universities could, however, cough up for expensive alternatives, such as a diginet line which the ISP I worked for at the time offered. These guaranteed uptime (which was very appealing as ADSL outages were very common) but you paid a hell of a lot of money per 64kbps of uncapped bandwidth. You were looking at something like $400-$500 a month per 64k for the cheapest support package. And we weren't even the most expensive. There was a law firm that was paying something like $30k a month for their pimped out 2048kbps line. Thank God things have improved dramatically there in the last decade (at least in terms of internet speeds).
  - exikyut 8y ago
    Wow, so all this was happening circa 2006?
    - chillidoor 8y ago
      And before. Most people were still on dialup until I think maybe 2010-2012. Wireless ISPs became really popular during all of this because they could offer better service, better uptime, better speeds, and QOS for things like VOIP. Bandwidth and data usage management became so important that ISPs were also selling managed proxy servers and on-premise email servers to businesses because it was cheaper than having to pay for additional 1GB data caps. The two primary causes for this situation was that the sole wireline telecomms company in SA and there were only 2 undersea data cables connecting SA (and I think Africa) to the rest of the world. Telkom was semi-private and state-owned so they had no incentive to improve things and also had to pay through the nose for access to the two undersea cables. However, things started to improve when more undersea cables got laid down (lowering bandwidth prices and improving international bandwidth) and the government started lowering entry barriers so that Telkom stopped being such a monopoly.
jedberg 8y ago
Out of curiosity, is there any reason to get a T3 today? I assume anywhere that it is available you can also get DSL for two orders of magnitude less.
- patrickg_zill 8y ago
  No, unless you want to break it out to a lot of voice lines, 30 T1's to be exact. Just about anywhere a T3 is you can get ethernet at the same or higher speed for less money.
  - willejs 8y ago
    It is 30 T1s in theory, but the physical connectivity is RJ-48 for T1 and x2 coaxial for T3. Both can be channelized into voice, or un-channelized for data...
    - patrickg_zill 8y ago
      Yes, exactly. I was trying to say that a person would be better served using ethernet if they wanted data. But some older phone systems still work well with tdm style T1 and T3...

newman314 8y ago

I had the same exact thought except OC192 popped into my head =)

exikyut 8y ago

Wow, 45-90Mbps for $3k-$6k/mo.

MichaelApproved 8y ago
It's not only about the throughput, it's also about the SLA and sustainable throughput.
chillidoor 8y ago
When I started my IT career in South Africa the internet situation was pretty horrendous. ADSL/Broadband speeds were 384kbps and you had hard bandwidth caps of ~$7 per gigabyte of traffic on top of your line rental. Companies and universities could, however, cough up for expensive alternatives, such as a diginet line which the ISP I worked for at the time offered. These guaranteed uptime (which was very appealing as ADSL outages were very common) but you paid a hell of a lot of money per 64kbps of uncapped bandwidth. You were looking at something like $400-$500 a month per 64k for the cheapest support package. And we weren't even the most expensive. There was a law firm that was paying something like $30k a month for their pimped out 2048kbps line. Thank God things have improved dramatically there in the last decade (at least in terms of internet speeds).
- exikyut 8y ago
  Wow, so all this was happening circa 2006?
  - chillidoor 8y ago
    And before. Most people were still on dialup until I think maybe 2010-2012. Wireless ISPs became really popular during all of this because they could offer better service, better uptime, better speeds, and QOS for things like VOIP. Bandwidth and data usage management became so important that ISPs were also selling managed proxy servers and on-premise email servers to businesses because it was cheaper than having to pay for additional 1GB data caps. The two primary causes for this situation was that the sole wireline telecomms company in SA and there were only 2 undersea data cables connecting SA (and I think Africa) to the rest of the world. Telkom was semi-private and state-owned so they had no incentive to improve things and also had to pay through the nose for access to the two undersea cables. However, things started to improve when more undersea cables got laid down (lowering bandwidth prices and improving international bandwidth) and the government started lowering entry barriers so that Telkom stopped being such a monopoly.

jedberg 8y ago

Out of curiosity, is there any reason to get a T3 today? I assume anywhere that it is available you can also get DSL for two orders of magnitude less.

patrickg_zill 8y ago
No, unless you want to break it out to a lot of voice lines, 30 T1's to be exact. Just about anywhere a T3 is you can get ethernet at the same or higher speed for less money.
- willejs 8y ago
  It is 30 T1s in theory, but the physical connectivity is RJ-48 for T1 and x2 coaxial for T3. Both can be channelized into voice, or un-channelized for data...
  - patrickg_zill 8y ago
    Yes, exactly. I was trying to say that a person would be better served using ethernet if they wanted data. But some older phone systems still work well with tdm style T1 and T3...