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Home Broadband Internet: The Basics

Broadband Internet: The Basics

Everything you always wanted to learn about broadband internet ... without spending a lot of time.

Broadband internet is the always-open gateway to a new world of Internet-based services delivered at lightning-fast speeds to households and businesses.

In effect, broadband is a huge pipeline that links consumers to the Internet's deepening pool of news, information, entertainment and data. Relying on digital and fiber-optic technologies, broadband eliminates the "world wide wait" that plagues slower Internet-access services such as America Online.

A broadband connection to the internet can be as much as 100 times faster than a "dial-up" service like AOL, which uses a copper-based telephone line to connect to the internet. Indeed, broadband turns surfing the World Wide Web into a sprint, rather than a crawl. What's more, a broadband connection is always on. You don't have to make a telephone call every time you want to connect your computer to the Internet.

The cost of hooking up service varies. But be prepared to spend up to $150 for installation; another $100 for hardware and software; and from $19.95 to $100 a month for service. Costs will drop over time, but today, your best bet is to check out your locally available options. You can do this by accessing "service availability" within this site. You may also want to look for advertised specials that usually include discounts on installation, equipment and monthly service fees.

Broadband internet opens up a new multimedia world in which all kinds of information -- text, graphics, audio and video -- can be delivered to a PC and other devices. That information can then be translated into such traditional forms of entertainment and information as television shows, movies and radio formats. That same digitally based information also can be used to create entirely new forms of multimedia forms, including:

• Interactive TV that lets viewers change camera angles and play along with game-show contestants.
• 3-dimensional games that let players engage with people across the street, as well as on the other side of the world.
• E-mail that can carry live video and sound.
• Instantaneous videoconferencing services.

Broadband-specific content is still thin, compared to TV and the movies. But in the near future, broadband users will see more sophisticated online games, audio and video streaming, videoconferencing and distance-learning applications, among many others.