The Basics of Broadband Internet

Answer 1

People who want broadband internet have many options. They can choose from DSL, cable Internet, and satellite Internet. All of these options have a reputation for being faster than dial-up Internet, and consequently are categorized as broadband Internet options.

Broadband is named the way it is because it offers a signal that carries comparatively greater bandwidth than other standard signals. In Internet communications, it most often is used to make a distinction from dial-up signals, since the phone lines that are used for dial-up Internet are known as baseband lines.

Broadband speed is based on the technology's ability to open up multiple channels through which data can pass. It can also carry many different kinds of data at different frequencies, whereas the baseband technology's ability to do this is limited. Broadband is also able to carry these frequencies faster than baseband.

One of the reasons that broadband is able to transmit these frequencies faster is because broadband connections have the ability to compress them more efficiently. The dial-up signal is based on an analog signal. Since computer use a digital signal, the analog dial-up signal must be converted first to digital. The fact that this conversion only happens at a certain rate of speed helps to explain why dial-up is so much slower than broadband. Dial-up connections use the phone lines, which are considered low-frequency, since the only thing these lines historically have been used for transmitting voice. Broadband lines, instead, are high-frequency lines, as in the case of DSL (digital subscriber lines).

DSL was one of the first of the broadband Internet technologies to emerge. Because of this technology's use of high-frequency lines, it is, at its fastest, quite a bit faster than dial-up connections. However, the signal for DSL can only be transmitted over a certain distance. If a connection is made over a very long distance, the speed of the DSL connection slows down significantly. Cable Internet is typically a reliably fast Internet connection, and many times is faster than DSL, though this may be slowed down if there are many cable subscribers in a given area. Satellite broadband Internet is commonly offered in rural areas where cable or DSL service is not available. This service is known for being smoother and less prone to fluctuations than cable or DSL service, and because it relies on satellite communication, it can accommodate many users at once and at times can be faster than other forms of broadband.