GigE And FastE

FastE: A technology that allows up to 100 Meg of Internet. You can buy it with just as little as 20 Meg and still have the rest available. The advantage of putting it on a bigger loop is so that you have room for growth. This has almost completely replaced the DS3 (45 Meg capacity) due to its easy growth. For example, if you buy a FastE circuit and put 20 Meg of Internet on that 100 Meg loop and a year or two down the road realize that you need more speed you can upgrade it in in a matter of days not months to anything up to 100 Meg.

GigE: This is the big brother to FastE. GigE gives you a 1 Gig loop so you can have up to 1 Gig of Internet access. Once again, you can start out at a lower speed such as 100 Meg and grow as dictated by your company’s future needs. The trap that people run into is when they buy a FastE product with 100 Meg already on it. To grow from there you have to replace the entire circuit. When buying FastE you need to check pricing of a GigE loop. Sometimes you might be surprised by the price difference being minimal.