Most likely, unless you're very young, you were introduced to the World Wide Web and the Internet through the use of a dial up connection. Here the phone line is hooked up to the computer and you dial out using access numbers provided by the Internet Service Provider (ISP). This type of connection to the Internet is only capable of having a maximum of 56 kbps (kilobits per second) for its download speed, which is now considered very, very slow.
As technology has improved, people can now enjoy Internet connection at lightning-fast speed. The old dial up connection method is becoming obsolete as people realize other different ways to have a faster Internet connection. This faster connection to the World Wide Web is known as a broadband connection.
Some people would think of broadband specifically as the DSL connection or, maybe, cable Internet. Broadband is not limited to these two connections, but they are the most common ones. There are other types of Internet connections considered to be broadband.
Federal Communications Commission has the following definition for Broadband Internet:
“…broadband service [is the] data transmission speeds exceeding 200 kilobits per second (Kbps), or 200,000 bits per second, in at least one direction: downstream (from the Internet to the user’s computer) or upstream (from the user’s computer to the Internet)”
Therefore, any type of Internet connection that has a speed of at least about four times faster than dial up is considered broadband.
As mentioned, there are different types of broadband Internet connections depending on the medium being used. All of which are capable of providing high-speed internet access.
DSL
DSL, or Digital Subscriber Line, is the most popular Internet connection type right now. Many people are aware of this type of broadband Internet since local phone companies offer this service to their customers. DSL is similar to dial up Internet in that they both use the telephone lines to transmit Internet data. However, DSL service is definitely much faster than dial up. DSL speeds range from 384kbps to 5Mbps or more.
Other than the fast Internet speed, DSL also does not interrupt the voice call functionality of the telephone lines, unlike with dial up where the line will be busy once connected to the Internet.
Before subscribing to DSL Internet connection, it would be best to ask if your location is near one of the facilities of the Internet service provider (ISP). The distance affects the speeds that you can possibly get from the servers of the ISP. The farther your place is from their facility, the less likely that you will enjoy their advertised speeds.