What type of connection?

Need some outside input.

Our church currently has a T1 line. We have about 70 computers running, 10 of which are high-capacity users (Video downloading, youtube, istockphoto, Video Uploading, etc..) and unfortunately an exchange Server onsite. We pay a little over $600/mo. Our speedtest.net report is about 1500ms ping, .07 download, and .04 upload. We are CRAWLING! AT&T says we are maxing out our bandwidth and the only solution is to add more T1 line(s). We really can't afford any more T1 lines and proving the cost benefit is hard when this T1 line has sucked for the past year.

One option our web guy suggested is to run about 3 high end cable lines, and a low end cable line for our exchange, but with static IP of course. we can divide the high-capacity users amongst the lines. How well would this idea flesh out? We know that DSL pulls from the same pool as everyone in the area, but what about Cable? our main need is fast download and fast upload. We want to download files fast, and upload our videos AFAP. I say that is our goals because I am the video guy, and our department gets hit the hardest when we are virtually internet-less.

Thanks in advance for the wisdom.
God Bless.
-Churchguy

Do you have an administrator for your network? A firewall?

For 70 users, you should have both. The firewall should be capable of performing QOS, giving those exchange people a limited bandwidth so that the video upload people can get their content onto the web in a timely manner.

The administrator should be able to monitor individual usage and look for problems with the network itself, as well as ensure that people are only downloading/uploading what they should be and not wasting bandwidth.

For example, there could be some content that is accessed repeatedly which might be moved to local storage, such as an online bible, where the content is rarely, if ever, changed.

Another option might be to do away with T1 all together. If you are doing a lot of those high-bandwidth activities on the downstream side but you aren't uploading much, you might be able to get away with a 20 MB service from a cable provider. Even still they generally have a 3 MB upload which is bigger than you have now. The downside of course is a shared medium (cable plant) but with such a lower price tag it might be worth it (plus you could get multiple lines and loadbalance them.)

firewall is a good option