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A dedicated line is a special telephone circuit installed by the telephone company or competitive access provider (CAP). Dedicated lines are usually much faster than normal phone lines because they are permanent end-to-end digital connections. Dedicated lines are used by organizations of all sizes to support multiple users and internal local networks. They are available in the various bandwidths shown below. 56k (56 kilobits per second) At twice the speed of a 28.8 modem these lines are appropriate for small business (1-20 simultaneous users) fractional T1 (variable bandwith from 128kbps to 1.54Mbps) At 5 to 30 times the speed of a modem these lines are appropriate for a wide range of medium sized organizations. full T1 (1.54 Mbps) At 30x faster than a reg modem these lines can be used for large businesses. T3. (45 Mbps) At 30x faster than a T1 these lines are used for very large enterprises. You may hear T1s called DS1s and T3s called DS3s. DS stands for Digital Service and is just another name for the same thing. Dedicated lines must be terminated at each end with a Channel Service Unit/Data Service Unit or CSU/DSU. These devices modulate and add demodulate digital signals similar to an analog modem. A CSU/DSU for a T1 line costs about $1,000 dollars while a CSU/DSU for a 56k line costs less than $500. Unfortunately, the devices are incompatible. A router is also required by customers. Routers interface with LANs and support various protocols such as Ethernet. The type of LAN that a customer has influences the type of router that is required. The following simulation shows how dedicated lines work.

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