“The
term “broadband” is like a moving target. Internet access speeds are
increasing all the time. As technology improves, even ITU’s recommended
speeds will soon be considered too slow.”
Although most people have heard
of broadband, few know exactly how they might define it. Broadband is
often associated with a particular speed or set of services, but in
reality the term “broadband” is like a moving target. Internet access
speeds are increasing all the time. One can therefore only really talk
about the “current” state of broadband, and make tentative
extrapolations, based on planned or incipient developments, that may or
may not come to fruition in the future.
Broadband is commonly used to
describe recent Internet connections that are significantly faster than
today’s dial-up technologies, but it is not a specific speed or service.
Recommendation
I.113 of the ITU Standardization Sector defines
broadband as a transmission capacity that is faster than primary rate
ISDN, at 1.5 or 2.0 Mbit/s. Elsewhere, broadband is considered to
correspond to transmission speeds equal to or greater than 256 kbit/s, and
some operators even label basic rate ISDN (at 144 kbit/s) as a “type of
broadband”. In this report, while not defining broadband specifically,
256 kbit/s is generally taken as the minimum speed.
The
real gift of broadband is the greater scope it provides for developing
applications and services, whether by enhancing existing ones, or enabling
new ones. The availability of broadband depends primarily on existing
networks, which vary according to the legacy infrastructure. For developed
countries and urban areas for example, wireline technologies, based around
twisted pair or coaxial cable, are already in place. In developing
countries and rural areas, other newer technologies, based around wireless
or satellite, may be more practical and cost-effective. Fibre offers the
best possibilities for the longer term. Cultural, political, geographical,
economic or other factors also play an important role, as do the
regulatory framework and the supporting institutional arrangements.
Wired connections account for the vast majority (over
98 per cent) of current connections—although wireless technologies are
starting to grow quickly. Of the fixed-line
connections, digital subscriber line (DSL) and cable modem technologies
are the most popular (see Figure 2, top chart). Until 2000, the
majority of broadband users were using cable modems, and this is still the
most popular form of access in North America. But worldwide, ADSL now
accounts for more than half the connections, being particularly popular in
Asia and Western Europe.
Where fixed-line connections
are not so readily available or convenient to use, a number of wireless
technologies such as Wi-Fi have been gaining in popularity too. While the
full Birth of Broadband Report describes each of these wired and
wireless technologies in detail, an overview of the different
characteristics of the main technologies are given in the table in Figure
2.
Although most people have heard
of broadband, few know exactly how they might define it. Broadband is
often associated with a particular speed or set of services, but in
reality the term “broadband” is like a moving target. Internet access
speeds are increasing all the time. One can therefore only really talk
about the “current” state of broadband, and make tentative
extrapolations, based on planned or incipient developments, that may or
may not come to fruition in the future.
