EP Interactive Values Forum

Some things are actually cheaper in New York

You're very lucky, you're in New York City. The best place in America to get a T-1 line is down the center of Manhattan where the telecom infrastructure is the most highly developed. T-1 lines are "distance-sensitive": the further you are away from a CO (phone company central office) the more you pay.

The best prices I've seen in Manhattan are $400/month for a three-year committment, so your Nynex quote is in line, I think. On the other hand, we recently had a client in the Midwest who got a $4,000 quote. (I told him the cheapest thing to do long term is move to New York.)

Access to telecom is an important issue. In the old days, you would site a factory based on access to water ports and airports for shipping, interstate highways for trucking and high capacity power grids for electricity. Now, you mainly need access to cheap high speed telecom.

On a more human level, a friend of mine who's getting divorced is calling around to find the best place to get a residential ISDN line. When he moves out, he'll pick his new town based on connectivity...to the Internet, that is.

If your article is on-line, I'd love to get the URL when it's done.