SHDSL performance has been greatly increased in recent years. Yet it’s still a very tough decision for small business owners.  Although, most will claim SHDSL just isn’t reliable enough for most business applications. If you plan on simply just browsing the web and/or email, SHDSL is a great choice. In my opinion SHDSL is perfectly suited for smaller companies with less than 15 employees. Keep in mind though, SHDSL uses a shared voice grade circuit and does not receive the attention a T-1 service would. I’d highly recommend NOT using SHDSL for any critical business applications.

Edited by Duck - 23 Apr 2007 at 9:00pm

my business has critical applications involving real estate foreclosures.  I would be using the shdsl for voice & data.  I was already sold on a t1/pri until today when I met with someone selling shdsl.  It didn't sound like the right choice for both voice and data.  Though less expensive, I'm quite hesitant .... so I guess my intuition is correct?

Have you checked to see how far away from the exchange you are for the shdsl line this guy wants to sell you?

But ya, more than likely I would stick with the T1pri if you can afford it.. if its really just not in the budget I would check my distance to the exchange for the shdsl line. 

Well if your serious about the shdsl lines, here are some questions I would ask your sales rep.

What service availability uptime does he normally see? Your looking for 99.90 % really..

What kind of "bursting" plans does he offer, and at what speeds?

If you see a spike in bandwidth , you will need to be boosted over your limit.. unless of course you think you will never hit your limit.  But some companies will give you a burst limit , where you will have a 512k shdsl line , but you can burst up to 1024k during spikes.  You should see how they handle all that.

You will need to see your usage reporting so you can be on top of your bandwidth situation and spikes. 
Find out what type of modem hes going to set you up with.

The good thing about the shdsl is the ability to go up and downstream at the same speeds. 

Find out what monthly bandwidth download hes giving you, and how much
its gonna cost you if you exceed it.  Some companies even track your peak time downloads and charge you extra like a cell phone company. 

You can even see if he has a fault response rate, for example most problems are fixed within a 1 hour fault response target.

See how many IPs he gives you.

If he answers all these questions and it appears he has this stuff straight, you can have a good experience using shdsl.