What is Broadband?

Broadband is a high speed Internet connection that gives you access to the Web up to 50 times faster than a traditional dial-up connection. This means that Web pages can be accessed almost instantly and you can download data at incredible speeds.

Simply put, broadband describes a technique for transmitting a large amount of information, including voice, data, and video, over long distances. The transmission capacity is divided into several distinct channels that can be used simultaneously. These individual channels are protected from each other by guard channels of unused frequencies. A broadband network can operate at speeds of up to 20 megabits per second and is based on the same technology used by cable television. Several different technologies and media may be used to provide broadband services. These include cable and telephone networks, which include twisted copper and fiber optic cables, satellite or terrestrial microwave signals, or some combination of these.

Networks having a broadband capacity are capable of transmitting voice, image, video, and data signals at a rate in excess of 1.5 megabits per second. By contrast, a narrowband network is limited to transmissions of voice, video, and data at speeds up to 64 kilobytes per second.  Wideband networks can transmit data at speeds between 64 kilobytes per second and 1.5 megabits per second. (Mega is roughly 1000 times larger than kilo.)

What is a Cable Connection?

Broadband Internet access through a cable line provides the customer with high speed data without using a telephone line. The service is provided through the same coax cable that provides the television service to the TV. DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) also offers broadband service over ordinary copper telephone lines. High transfer rates are achieved by using more available bandwidth (the amount of information that can be transmitted over a communications line at one time) than an ordinary telephone line.

How Do I Decide What I Need?

Here are some criteria:

1. Availability of broadband cable or DSL Internet service in your area.
2. Total costs – installation and monthly service charges
3. Backlog - waiting list for broadband connection
4. Quality of a broadband service provider

Where do I get a Broadband connection?

Broadband is available from local cable TV companies, local phone carriers, and DSL providers. You will need to order broadband service from one of these sources. As part of the set-up for broadband service, you will receive a high-speed modem that is constantly connected to the Internet.

Together these two issues imply a radical change in competitive at all levels from the application service provider to the network provider. There may be a need to review and modify competition policy and regulation.

Broadband access can be provided by guided media (either copper or fibre-optic), or by unguided media (air-interface) such as satellite or terrestrial microwave. Many developed and middle income countries have a policy of rolling out fibre-based infrastructure across the country. If broadband networks are to have a wide geographic coverage, the expense of this investment may render public-private cooperation essential in some countries. Even with public-private cooperation, the cost of establishing fibre infrastructure in rural or regional areas means that universal service may never be achieved.

• http://www.intel.com/cd/personal/computing/emea/eng/114395.htm
• http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/ni/broadband/background.html
• http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002287905_cityfiber25.html
• http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-410es.html