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Over the years the cost of high speed internet connections, also known as broadband, have been reduced. Nowadays you can get broadband at introduction prices of $25 and therefore is becoming very popular. There are several types of broadband connections; Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), Cable, and satellite.

Cable

Cable is the most popular in the US with approximately 10.5 million users as of Dec 2002 as reported on Cnet News. Cable works by sending data across the same cable line as cable TV. It goes into the house via your cable TV line and then gets slit to go to a cable modem which changes the signals to that a computer can understand. Cable can be incredibly fast for downloading, reaching up to 3 mbps (mega bits per second), however their upload rates are weaker and often limited to 128kbps.

DSL

DSL is the second most popular in the US with approximately 5 million users at the end of Dec 2002. SL works over the telephone line. The data is sent over a telephone line that has been preconditioned by your local telephone provider. This particular line comes from the telephone companies Central Office and to your modem. This central office is a structure like a hub that patches all the telephone lines in your area together. The distance from your location to the central office governs two things: one, can you actually get DSL? You have to be within 17,000 feet; and secondly, what speed you will have over your DSL line. The closer you are to the central office, the faster the connection. Your overall connection rates are generally from 128kbps to 1.5mbps. One great benefit of DSL is that you can share the same phone line for the internet connection and voice calls. So there is no need to get another telephone line for the internet.

Now, there are two types of DSL; ADSL and SDSL.

ADSL stands for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. The Asymmetric refers to the upload and download rates meaning they will be different. The download rate will be faster and can go up to 1.5mbps whereas the upload rate is from 128kbps to 1.5mbps. The actual values depend on firstly your plan that you have with your DSL provider ñ often and secondly with the distance from your central office.


Generally over here in the US, people have ADSL, however we generally just call it DSL. The normal consumers are not concerned about the A or the S in the DSL.

Satellite

The third broadband connection is satellite. Satellite works by placing a satellite disk on top of your house and pointing it towards a big dish either in the sky or on a mountaintop somewhere. The data for your connection is transmitted over the airwaves directly to your modem. The speeds though from satellite arenít always that great. Obviously this all depends on your provider, but download rates can be great, however upload rates are similar to that of a regular modem!