Is Your Computer On Broadband? by

To go Broadband or not? That is the question! Internet has become a fad striking each and every household’s computers. It’s a bandwagon where everyone gets the enjoyable ride. It has become a craze diligently patronized by small and large scale businesses with an online set up or even those who have decided to put up with the Internet. Customers compete in terms of connection that they have, proudly speaks of having a fast access and sincerely encourages their friends to make that decision. Why are then, some people, refusing to go broadband? It is but noteworthy to understand the basics of broadband, high speed or fast access.


There are so many terms attached to it. Many people call it different names but they all mean the same thing. According to Merriam-Webster, broadband “relates to or being a high speed communications network and especially one in which a frequency range is divided into multiple independent channels for simultaneous transmission signals.” Imagine an expressway, it has wide roads and numerous vehicles speeding their way on it. That is what broadband is like.

Broadband technology advances like no other. Telephone and cable companies have provided conduits for this connection to pass through. The highway described earlier approaches to one stop, the Internet. It is like a huge door that opens up every household’s computer to access the Internet and no longer prolong the agony of waiting from opening one website to another.

To start up with a broadband connection, it is then imperative to know if whether your telephone or cable providers support these connections. The area must have access to that type of connection in order to land on the faster service. There are several advantages to acquiring this connection. The first is the well obvious speedier connection or access. You can now use the telephone and the fax machine while using the Internet. You can make outgoing and receive incoming messages. The perennial problem of sluggish connection and telephone use interruption is finally put behind you. With broadband access, you can enjoy multitasking doing research for paperwork, listening to your favorite songs and your computer is downloading the attached pictures from an email while you get to enjoy a cup of latte on the other hand. Yes, these can all be done at the comfort of your own room. Some broadband service companies provide free technical support if you need help but the safety and security tools can now run smoothly with software that are auto updating and always online.

There are still several means to define how broadband can greatly affect the market’s use of internet nowadays, the business potential increases at the same time while more and more are switching to broadband. The basic savings however on this is time; doing more in such little time, your precious time. To the first question posted at the beginning of this article, it will rely on your call. But for anyone who values time and believes that time is gold, it should not be a question anymore.

James Brown writes about NetZero Internet key code, broadbandnational.com coupon and PeoplePC Online key code

Article Source: Article King Pro

Tags: wireless, cable modem, broad band, DSL. T1, high speed internet access. broadband

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The report demonstrates that broadband use is growing swiftly, and that broadband technologies are expanding the range and frequency of Internet use. Yet, not all geographic locations in the United States are using high-speed services to the same degree. Future surveys will enable us to track our progress in ensuring that all Americans have access to this important information technology

Tags: high speed internet access. broadband, cable modem, DSL. T1, broad band, wireless

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Many of those who do not use the Internet employ other communications devices and entertainment media although their usage rates trail those of Internet users. For example, 48.3 percent of households that do not have Internet have cable TV versus 59.9 percent of Internet households. And 31.1 percent of households that do not have Internet have cell phones versus 67.7 percent of Internet households.

Indeed, a certain percentage of Americans remain non-users even when there is already someone in their household using the Internet at home. Figure 12 shows that almost one-quarter (24.7 percent) of non-Internet users live in a household that has an Internet connection. Additionally, only seven percent of the non-Internet users live in a household with broadband access. Therefore, it appears that regardless of availability or affordability, a certain percentage of Americans likely will remain non-users, just as five to six percent of households have consistently declined home telephone service since the early 1990s.

Tags: cable modem, wireless, DSL. T1, high speed internet access. broadband, broad band

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As shown in Table 3, broadband connections at home are less prevalent in rural America (24.7 percent) than in urban areas (40.4 percent), particularly in central cities (40.9 percent). The 2003 CPS supplement found that in rural areas, subscribership for both cable modems (14.3 percent) and DSL (9.2 percent) is lower than national averages (20.6 percent and 15.2 percent, respectively). While broadband usage has grown significantly in all areas since the previous survey, the rural-urban differential continues. However, wireless technologies such as satellite and MMDS are promising technologies for increasing broadband use in rural areas. They are better suited at present than cable or DSL for providing high speed Internet access in areas where population density is low. Even at this early stage of wireless deployment, rural households are slightly more likely than urban households to have satellite or MMDS.

Table 3: Type of Home Internet Connection by Rural/Urban, 2003
(Percent of Households with Internet)

This situation is not new. As explained in the April 2000 report co-authored by the Departments of Agriculture and Commerce, cable modem and DSL technologies are less likely to serve rural areas for varied reasons. Cable modem service may not extend to remote customers, who often do not have cable systems built out to their homes. Additionally, the cost of building out cable modem service is higher in rural and remote areas, where the subscriber base is low. DSL is similarly hampered by distance as loops extending more than 15,000 to 18,000 feet from the central switching office are less likely to be able to support DSL-based advanced services without significant cost increases. The report concluded that “[t]he deployment of both technologies declines with population density. [C]able modems and DSL services, although increasingly available in rural towns, are still far more available in larger metropolitan areas…. As a result, residents in rural areas will generally be the last to receive service.”

The difficulty that residents of rural areas face in obtaining broadband is illustrated in the reasons that dial-up households give for not having moved to higher-speed service. As shown in Figure 10, dial-up Internet households most often cite “Don’t Need/Not Interested” (44.1 percent) and “Too Expensive” (38.9 percent) as the main reasons they do not have higher speed access at home. Only 9.8 percent cited that high-speed service was not available.

However, there are major differences in the responses between rural and urban households. Figure 11 shows that while only 4.7 percent of urban Internet households believed that broadband was not available, 22.1 percent of rural Internet households surveyed believed that they did not have broadband available to them.

Indeed, differences in availability may account for much of the disparity in broadband use between rural and urban areas. For example, if dial-up households citing “Lack of Availability” as the primary reason for not having higher-speed access were added to those currently having broadband, then rural and urban households would have broadband Internet connections in roughly the same proportion (41.2 percent and 43.1 percent for rural and urban, respectively).

Tags: wireless, high speed internet access. broadband, broad band, DSL. T1, cable modem

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The greater number of online activities in which individuals engage, the higher the likelihood they will have broadband at home. Even though the “frequency of use” variable refers to Internet use from any location, those individuals with broadband in the home are more likely to be daily Internet users (66.1 percent) than those with dial-up at home (51.2 percent).

People with broadband in the home also engage to a greater degree in certain online activities. Figure 5 shows the percent of Internet users engaging in some common online activities in September 2001 and October 2003. These activities have been grouped into four broad categories: communications, entertainment, transactions, and information. Figure 6 shows activities by percent of Internet users in each of three home connection types (no Internet at home, home dial-up access, and home broadband access). As discussed below, individuals who go online for entertainment, banking, purchasing products or services, or obtaining information, are more likely to have broadband at home than those with dial-up service.

Communications

E-mail remains the most prevalent online activity, with 87.8 percent of Internet users sending and receiving e-mail or instant messaging. As shown in Figure 5, the percentage of Internet users who e-mail remained virtually unchanged between 2001 and 2003. Additionally, Figure 6 shows that those with dial-up and broadband service at home, as well as those without Internet access at home, are using the Internet for e-mail at substantial levels. The survey did not ask about Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), an emerging application, although future surveys will do so.

Entertainment

The use of the Internet for entertainment is substantially more likely among those with broadband. As shown in Figure 6, the proportion of Internet users with home dial-up connections who listen to the radio or view TV or movies on the Internet is almost one-half of those with broadband connectivity (17.3 percent versus 30.9 percent, respectively). In fact, dial-up users are more like those without the Internet at home in terms of the extent of their use of the Internet for entertainment.

Transactions

Two of the activities with the greatest growth between 2001 and 2003 were online purchases of goods and services (e-commerce) and online banking. As Figure 5 demonstrates, the proportion of Americans engaging in e-commerce has grown substantially—8.0 percentage points—over the 2001-2003 period. Online banking grew by 10.4 percentage points, more than any other activity considered. Both e-commerce and online banking are also areas where substantial differences exist between usage levels of home dial-up and broadband users.

Information

A large majority of Internet users go online for information. They most often search for product or service information, frequently as a precursor to online or conventional commerce. In general, usage rates for dial-up and broadband users are similar in this area. A significant portion of home dial-up Internet users (40.0 percent) and nearly a majority of broadband Internet users (47.9 percent) use the Internet to research health services and related issues. News, weather, and sports is the only information category where a difference of over 10 percentage points exists between dial-up and broadband users: 64.4 and 76.2 percent, respectively. The number of information searches about government services or agencies also grew between 2001 and 2003, with substantial differences existing in this e-government activity between those with broadband Internet at home and those without.

Internet users with broadband at home are more likely than those with dial-up or no home Internet connection to engage in each of the specific activities discussed above. Additionally, they are more likely to engage in the highest number of online activities. As shown in Figure 7, 15.0 percent of Internet users with no Internet at home engage in only one of the 12 activities considered. The proportion of Internet users with Internet in the home that engage in only one activity is much smaller—8.3 percent of those with home dial-up service and 4.5 percent of those with broadband. At the other end of the distribution, 22.1 percent of Internet users with broadband at home engage in eight or more activities. The comparable figures are 10.6 percent for those with dial-up at home and 8.2 percent for users without Internet at home.

Tags: high speed internet access. broadband, wireless, DSL. T1, cable modem, broad band

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Figure 1: Percent of Households with Computers and Internet Connections, Selected Years, 1997-2003*

*Note: 2001 and 2003 reflect 2000 Census-based weights and earlier years use 1990 Census-based weights.

The proportion of U.S. households with computers reached 61.8 percent in 2003, and 87.6 percent of those households used their computers to access the Internet. As a result, 54.6 percent of U.S. households had Internet connections (54.1 percent in households with a personal computer or laptop, plus an additional 0.5 percent using a mobile telephone or some other home Internet access device). Household Internet connections increased only four percentage points in the 25 months between the two most recent surveys, compared to an almost nine percentage-point increase during the 13 months separating the previous two surveys (August 2000 and September 2001).

Although the growth of the percentage of overall home Internet connections slowed, dramatic changes occurred in the relative distribution of the various types of Internet connections. Between September 2001 and October 2003, the number of households with Internet connections grew by 6.9 million. However, the percentage of households with high-speed Internet or broadband connections more than doubled, increasing from 9.1 to 19.9 percent of all U.S. households (Figure 1), or by 12 million households. Dial-up connections actually declined by 12.7 percent, or 5.6 million households, during the period. These factors suggest that a transition is underway as Internet households move from dial-up service to faster broadband connections. As shown in Table 1, the increase in Internet totals was due to growth in both of the major high-speed connection technologies: DSL and cable.

Further, it is worth noting that broadband’s rate of diffusion is outpacing that of many popular technologies in the past, such as video cassette recorders (VCRs), the Internet, and personal computers (PCs) (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Household Diffusion of Popular Technologies in the U.S. After Reaching Five Percent Threshold

Source: OECD, Information Technology Outlook, 2004.

Another significant change over the last two years has been in the selection of broadband technologies. Initially, cable modems were the leading broadband technology used to connect to the Internet. Competing technologies, most notably DSL, have gained significant acceptance. Between 2001 and 2003, the number of DSL users nearly tripled. This gain has eroded the substantial market share lead that cable modems enjoyed in 2001. Of the 18.2 percent of U.S. Internet households that had higher-speed Internet capability in 2001, almost two-thirds used cable modems. As shown in Figure 3, DSL’s share has grown over time, although cable still retains a higher market share.

These data measure the presence of computers and Internet connections in the home rather than focusing on the individuals in the home who actually use the Internet. Not everyone in a home with Internet access uses the Internet, however. Furthermore, people without home Internet access may use the Internet at another location, such as school, work, or a public library. Figure 4 shows that 14.2 percent of Internet users—or 8.4 percent of the U.S. population—lack home Internet access and use the Internet elsewhere.

Tags: broad band, cable modem, high speed internet access. broadband, DSL. T1, wireless

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These high-speed connections are becoming ever more central to accessing and relaying information quickly.  Because of broadband’s increasing popularity, this report focuses on the growth of home broadband usage and the ways in which broadband users differ from dial-up users.  The report finds that those with broadband at home are more intensive Internet users.  Persons with broadband at home are more likely than other Internet users to use the Internet frequently and engage in a wider variety of online activities, such as entertainment and information gathering.

The report also examines the geographic differences in broadband adoption and the reasons why some Americans do not have high-speed service.  The distribution of high-speed usage across economic and demographic categories, for the most part, follows the same patterns of variation that have been observed in the past in overall Internet use.  One major difference, however, is in the pattern of geographic dispersion.  Although the rate of Internet penetration among rural households (54.1 percent) is similar to that in urban areas (54.8 percent), the proportion of Internet users with home broadband connections remained much lower in rural areas than in urban areas.

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