Cable: Cable Internet access is limited to residential customers. Currently, there is no cable business or commercial Internet access available in the Los Angeles area from any cable company. In general, cable Internet access is not available for commercial or business subscribers. At this time, MediaOne offers business cable access in Boston, Massachusetts on an experimental basis only. Given the limitations of the technology, cable access is not expected to become a prevalent commercial or business Internet access technology.

DSL: If DSL is available in your area, this is probably your most cost-effective choice. DSL technology provides a broad bandwidth connection to the Internet over a standard telephone line at bandwidths from 144Kbps to full 1.5Mbps T-1. The bandwidth available is highly dependent on the distance from the local telephone company office (TELCO) and local line quality. DSL comes in a variety of flavors: IDSL, ADSL, SDSL, and some confusing brand name DSL like HDSL. DSL stands for Digital Subscriber Line. IDSL is DSL using an ISDN line. This is the only metered rate DSL and is rarely used. ADSL is asymmetric DSL. It is asymmetric in that the upstream bandwidth is less than the downstream bandwidth. SDSL is symmetric DSL. It is symmetric in that both upstream and downstream bandwidth are the same. DSL is provided as a bridged network technology and as a point-to-point product. The lowest cost business or commercial DSL is available directly from your local telephone company. Telephone company DSL lines may also carry voice and analog modem traffic on the same line as well as the DSL Internet connection. If you purchase DSL from the local telephone company, the telephone company will provide you with a list of 20 or more Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to choose from for your Internet services. We recommend that you choose the telephone company's Internet service to minimize finger pointing when something goes wrong. DSL has the lowest priority for repair with the telephone company. In addition, DSL service seems to have a high repair rate. It is not uncommon for service to be down for three to seven days every couple of months. As a result, we strongly recommend that you maintain dial-up access as a backup if your Internet access is critical to you.

At the present time all other DSL, regardless of who you buy it from, is provided by two companies; COVAD and Northpoint. All ISPs selling DSL are, in fact, reselling COVAD or Northpoint DSL. Given that the basic product is the same, you should make your choice of a reseller based on price and/or the reputation of the ISP. DSL prices vary widely and many ISPs are offering free or discounted installation and/or equipment. All DSL service is based on a one year contract, so choose your providers carefully. DSL purchased from ISPs reselling COVAD and/or Northpoint DSL is point-to-point DSL and is not bridged. This means you are more likely to have the full availability of the bandwidth you purchase with no usage limitations. Commercial or Business quality DSL is available at distances greater than 10,000 feet from the local TELCO. The increased cost is the result of amplification equipment that must be placed on the line to achieve service at the greater distances. DSL purchased from resellers of COVAD or Northpoint DSL does not allow voice/analog data to be carried on the DSL line. This service is only available with service purchased directly from the local telephone company.

The economics of DSL are similar to those of cable service. From an economic point of view, you can't reliably sell everyone T-1 Internet access for $$500.00/month when T-1 backbone access costs $1000.00-$3000.00/month. Point-to-point DSL connections may be expected to perform better but should also have problems with performance in the long run. Most DSL providers are providing DSL at prices below their real costs, either to gain or retain (TELCOs) market share. It is important to understand that the real savings with DSL is in reducing the cost of the local loop connection, (the phone line from your location to the Internet backbone). DSL does not provide any reduction in the cost of backbone Internet access. (e.g. A local T-1 FRAME RELAY local loop connection costs about $675.00/month from Pacific Bell. To this you have to add about $2000.00/month for T-1 Internet backbone access. DSL saves you the cost of the $675.00/month for the local loop, but has no effect on the cost of the $2000.00/month backbone access. When you are offered T-1 DSL Internet access for $500.00/month, the seller is betting that you aren't going to use the full bandwidth and that he can sell that same bandwidth to several other customers. The lower the price, the more customers the same bandwidth has been sold to.)

Even with all the considerations discussed above, DSL can be a cost-effective broad bandwidth business or commercial Internet access solution particularly when compared to ISDN, FRAME RELAY or Point-to-Point T-1. Business DSL service can be networked. Business DSL routers are generally assigned static IP numbers and function as DHCP servers and provide IP assignment to computers on the local area network (LAN). In addition, additional static IP numbers can be purchased if required. DSL is, however, a half duplex technology, not full duplex like FRAME RELAY or Point-to-Point T-1. As a result DSL is better suited as an Internet connection for Business Local Area Networks (LANs) than it is for providing Internet servers like WEB or E-Mail servers. Because DSL is half duplex, data packets travel in only one direction at a time. Where traffic is heavily bi-directional, significant amounts of the bandwidth are required for administrative overhead to manage the traffic, reducing effective bandwidth for data traffic. Reverse DNS is not routinely provided for DSL Internet connections. If you are planning on hosting an E-Mail server on your network, be sure to arrange with your provider to provide reverse DNS. If reverse DNS is not provided, outbound mail may be rejected by many receiving E-Mail servers using reverse DNS to verify the originating address of incoming e-mail as part of their security and anti-spam controls.

FRAME RELAY:  Frame Relay is a full-duplex networked Internet access technology provided over T-1 telephone lines used to provide the local loop connection between your business location and your ISP who provides the actual Internet connection to the backbone. FRAME RELAY is distinguished from POINT-TO-POINT T-1 in that POINT-TO-POINT T-1 is a dedicated line between two fixed points and is charged on the basis of a full T-1 (1.536Mbps) and the mileage between the two points whereas FRAME RELAY is a networking strategy which allows the FRAME connection to be made to any other FRAME node and may be purchased in fractions of a T-1. FRAME RELAY is limited geographically within each LATA (Local Access Telephone Area) and is not generally provided between LATAs. (For example, you can purchase FRAME RELAY between Los Angeles and Oxnard, CA but not between Los Angeles, CA and Tampa, Florida.)

Frame Relay products and prices from the local telephone companies vary due to differing tariffs from the Public Utilities Commission.

Pacific Bell provides FRAME RELAY in bandwidths of 56Kbps, 128Kbps, 384Kbps and 1.536Mbps.

Installation cost from Pacific Bell is $1099.50 regardless of bandwidth. Monthly costs are $250.00 for 56Kbps, $325.00 for 128Kbps, $575.00 for 384Kbps, and $675.00 for full T-1. FRAME RELAY is an unmetered rate service. FRAME RELAY requires a router (Ascend Pipeline 130 or Cisco 2501 or higher.) The 56Kbps product is DDS, is not really FRAME RELAY, and cannot be upgraded. 128Kbps and 384Kbps products are FRAME RELAY and can be upgraded to higher bandwidth for a one-time charge of approximately $100.00. FRAME RELAY is appropriate where distances between connect points are too far to be cost effective with POINT-TO-POINT T-1; or where fractional T-1 is adequate and provides cost savings.

GTE provides FRAME RELAY in bandwidths of 64Kbps, 128Kbps, 256Kbps, 384Kbps, 512Kbps, 768Kbps and 1.536Mbps.

Installation cost from GTE is $307 regardless of bandwidth. Monthly costs are $ for 56Kbps, $ for 128Kbps, $ for 256Kbps, $ for 384Kbps, $ for 512Kbps, $ for 768Kbps and $ for full T-1. FRAME RELAY is an unmetered rate service. FRAME RELAY requires a router (Ascend Pipeline 130 or Cisco 2501 or higher.) All products are FRAME RELAY and can be upgraded to higher bandwidth for a one-time charge of approximately $350.00.

POINT-TO-POINT T-1:  is a full-duplex dedicated line between two fixed points provided over T-1 telephone lines used to provide the local loop connection between your business location and your ISP who provides the actual Internet connection to the backbone. POINT-TO-POINT T-1 is charged on the basis of full T-1 (1.536Mbps) bandwidth and the mileage between the two points. POINT-TO-POINT T-1 is appropriate where distances between connect points close enough to be cost effective.

POINT-TO-POINT T-1 prices from the local telephone companies vary due to differing tariffs from the Public Utilities Commission. Call us and we can get you a quote based on the particulars of your needs.

INTERNET or BACKBONE ACCESS CHARGES: FRAME RELAY and POINT-TO-POINT T-1 phone lines provide only the "LOCAL LOOP" or connection between your location and your ISP who provides the actual connection to the INTERNET (BACKBONE). Typically, your ISP will charge for INTERNET or BACKBONE access based on the bandwidth you wish to purchase or that you actually use. ISP's measure bandwidth in kbps (thousands of bits per second) as that is typically how they buy it. A T-1 backbone connection provides about 1500kbps, or 1,500,000bps. Your typical 56Kbps modem connection provides about 53,000bps or less. BACKBONE ACCESS is not cheap and runs about $1000 to $4000/month depending on who you buy it from, what quantity your ISP purchased it in, and what the commit rate is. COMMIT RATE or CIR is one of those things you find in the fine print of most contracts if you look carefully and that makes a big difference in the value of what you're buying. CIR or COMMIT RATE is the guaranteed bandwidth of the backbone acces s you're buying. Many T-1 Backbone Access Contracts specify commit rates or CIRs of only 384Kbps. That means that you are only guaranteed 384Kbps bandwidth. Be sure you are getting what you think you are paying for. BBS-LA only sells bandwidth with a 100% CIR. If your buy 384kbps FRAME RELAY from us, we reserve the full 384Kbps for you and do not resell that bandwidth to any other customer.

Because we reserve additional uncommitted bandwidth, we can also sell you an average bandwidth usage with a maximum burst rate. This allows you to purchase bandwidth with at a rate based in your average utilization with the assurance that the bandwidth will be available for your peak utilization. We also sell backbone access on a "variable rate" basis where you are charged for the backbone access that you actually use. BBS-LA's charges for bandwidth or backbone access are based on a sliding scale that discounts bandwidth costs based on quantity. If you are interested in purchasing broadband backbone access, please contact us for a price list. You'll find our rates are competitive with no tricks or fine print that you have to watch out for.