I would say the cost benefit of T1 is not worth it. DSL quotes the same speeds as T1s, but it is not the same. If you have a T1 line, you are essentially part of the backbone, latency is a non-issue. 1.5MBs on a T1 is not the same as 1.5MBs on a cable connection. The cable company has a multiple set of T1s, added to OC3 or some gi-normous connection, and they sell that to you through their cable lines. Today, it's probably not worth it to pay for a T1 line, but T1 is still the best internet connection you can bring into your house.
For most people and most of the traders here, they do not need a T1 line to their home. The additional cost of the service weighed against their trading is not justified, even tho the costs of a single T1 has dropped to around $300 for some carriers in major metro areas. 6 secs. faster? Not on your life. If you want to enter trades faster or get your quotes displayed quicker, the computer hardware you have helps, but, like a broken record that you've been hearing for years, put as much memory in your system as it allows and your OS can access. If you can max that out, you will find many (not all) of your latency problems solved.
The speed of the connection (upload/download specs) is not important for trading. It is reliability, low latency and limited packet loss. This is were a T1 outperforms about every data connection. My cable internet provider (Cox) has fantastic upload/download specs and generally is rock solid. The problem is when they decide to perform network maintenance and improvements. They will do this unannounced and on and off for days. The connection becomes unreliable and displays high round trip ping times and packet loss. This is tolerable for email and basic internet usage but unacceptable for trading. Unfortunately for me, DSL and FIOS are not available in my area.
Exactly. Not so much an issue for small / retail traders but if you run high frequency auto trading, reliability is a key factor. That is why our firm has leased lines rather than standard internet. No offence but if you are looking at your trading and thinking that your data and/or fills could get 6 seconds faster than they are, then you either have a terrible hardware, broker and data service set-up or you're pretty naive. Neither problem would be solved by a T1 line.
T-1s are nice, had one in my office until I quit working for a living. You can get the same bandwidth from upper-end broadband solutions. But the T-1 advantage is in not having to share a connection with lower-speed broadband users, as is the case in cable, DSL and satellite. You're still sharing bandwidth with other users (you're not their only T-1 customer) and contrary to popular opinion, a T-1 is not a direct connection to the Internet. However, if your broadband has a history of issues that screw up trading, a T-1 is an option. Expensive, but when you're trading up to 40 cars at a time, the cost of a T-1 is nil, and a business expense at that.
All of the above statements are false, none of you have any idea what you are talking about. As I have already told you, modern T1 circuits are delivered with DSL technology. The circuits typically terminate in the same equipment at the telco CO as the rest of the DSL connections. A T1 makes sense is when other signaling is not available (SDSL, ADSL, or Cable).
Sorry pal, I think you are mistaken. Cable vs T1 - are you kidding? Wireless & Satellite vs T1 - huh I will concede that DSL & FIOS are viable alternatives for a T1 I hope this gets you on the right track.
Before everyone gets all upset - A leased T1 between you and your broker is very expensive, very reliable, and does not go over the public internet to get there. It is dedicated bandwidth over whatever network your provider and the major national carriers set up. A dedicated T1 between your location and your ISP provider is simply a dedicated line between you and a central office. At the central office your dedicated line (T1) is connected to the internet and becomes subject to the peaks and valleys of internet loading (packet loss primarily). A DSL line at home may or may not have T1 speed, but is not termed a T1 line by your contract. It is solely for your use until it gets to the central office, then joins the internet. (this may have changed - I was involved in this stuff before the turn of the century) A cable provider like Comcast puts you on a local network in your neighborhood and as that network gets busy you start to experience slowdowns due to the communications protocol used to provide the service. Jack