What is Broadband?

What is Broadband?

Home internet users have previously accessed the web through a "narrow-band" dial-up connection through an analogue modem, at a maximum speed of 56Kbits per second.

As most households have just one phone line, this has also meant that when logged on to the net it has been impossible to make a voice phone call at the same time.

Broadband, or ADSL, technology has also been available for many years, offering vast improvements in speed, reliability and the ability to access voice and internet at the same time on the same line. But prices for the domestic user have been prohibitively high.

However, a succession of rulings by telecommunications industry regulator Oftel and subsequent moves by BT have forced down prices to the point where they are now very affordable for many households.

ADSL is an abbreviation for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. It sounds technical but is really very easy.

The DSL part simply means that the spare capacity on your current analogue phone line is converted to a digital line. This in turn means that data can be transferred at greatly increased speeds and you don't need another line to get the service.

While your analogue modem works at a maximum speed of 56Kbits/sec, ADSL works at between 512Kbits/sec and 8Mbits/sec " up to 140 times faster!

The term Asymmetric simply means data arriving at your computer arrives faster than data leaving your computer, which is what you want after all.

And that's broadband!