Internet Connectivity - Broadband Connectivity

BROADBAND CONNECTIVITY

Although broadband technology offered high-speed Internet access, consumers were initially slow to adopt it. While the greater bandwidth of a broadband connection allowed for more data to be transmitted at higher speeds than a conventional telephone line, most consumers were unwilling to pay $40 or more a month for broadband services that would enable them to view streaming media better or download Web pages faster. A mid-2001 report from Strategy Analytics predicted that by the end of 2001, 14.1 percent of all North American households would have a high-speed Internet connection, up from the 6 to 8 percent other studies reported for the end of 2000. By 2005, Strategy Analytics predicted the broadband user base would swell to 53 percent of North American households.

Broadband includes cable modem and DSL connections as well as alternative broadband technologies. Unlike telephone line connections to the Internet, which typically involve dialing up, broadband connections are always on. DSL uses ordinary copper telephone lines to deliver a high-bandwidth connection to the Internet, with typical data transmission speeds ranging from 512 Kbps to 1.544 Mbps (millions of bits per second). However, DSL service requires a certain proximity to the DSL provider's central office, and DSL providers must set up several such offices to serve a large area. Cable modems are the most popular broadband connection among consumers. To provide high-speed Internet access over cable lines, cable system operators have had to upgrade their systems and replace old one-way lines with lines that can handle two-way traffic. Alternative broadband technologies, mostly used by businesses, include leased lines, frame relay, fiber optics, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), T1 and T3 lines, and ISDN (integrated services digital network). High-speed Internet access is also available through satellite services, although the number of subscribers remains small in comparison to cable modem and DSL subscribers.