I was thinking of getting a few servers and moving some large projects onto them from the various web hosts I use. But, being in the US in a medium sized city (300k people), bandwidth isn't usually available in large quantities. What would be the best way for me to get a 10 megabit connection to a commercial space? What kind of connection should I be looking at (e.g. T1 lines or OC)? I'm not even sure if an OC line is available for a reasonable sum and to a small business. I've already checked with local ISPs, and the fastest type of connection available from them was, not surprisingly, a T1.
I think the best you can get is a T1, try to rent a cabinet inside one of the datacentre, there you can get a 10 mbps or 100 mbps easily.
Unfortunately there's only one data center in my area, and their rates are incredibly high. I'd really like to access the servers myself for maintenance and upgrades. Having them in-office would just make things a lot easier.
datacenter is not only network. It combines power, cooling, security etc, all redundant. Is your office including that? 24/7 security + power + ups + redundant network? Have you calculated the charge for power + cooling?
I think you answered your own question... if you called around and found out that you can only get a T1 and you don't want to pay to use a data center nor do you want to pay for an OC line, doesn't that only leave you with the T1? Your only other option would be to look into a dedicated server somewhere. Media Temple has some nice offers.
Which State or City or Town are you in ? I would probably help if you know which region you need the connection in. You could check with Cogent , they do seems to have a good presence in the US and their prices are quite reasonable. You can check to see if there is a datacenter near your place , http://www.cogentco.com/us/network_datacenters.php .
Well for someone who is serious about getting a 10mbps would have serious money and for that I doubt he would be installing the network in the home but may have plans for a datacenter framework in place already. Besides he did say something about a commercial place.
In a small town like that, your options are probably a bit limited. But in the central business district there's got to be someone selling fractional T3. Start by calling the phone company. Even if they don't sell it themselves, they're likely to be involved in the provision of the service in some way. If you want more specific information I think you're going to have to let us know which town we're talking about. If it's Ann Arbor, then there's fibre under every sidewalk. If it's Twin Falls, Idaho, then maybe not.