Introduction

Abstract

Broadband Internet access (or just ‘broadband’) is a high data rate connection to the Internet that is typically contrasted with the dial-up access using a 56 kbps modem. Dial-up modems are limited to a bit rate of about 60 kbps and require the dedicated use of a telephone line, whereas broadband technologies supply more than this rate generally without disrupting telephone use. Broadband is a term that is used consistently with different types of internet connections. Broadband in telecommunications means a wide range of frequencies that are available to transmit information. This eventually means that the wider the range of frequencies available, the higher the amount of information that can be sent at any given point of time will be. Since data transmission and networking technologies have witnessed tremendous growth over the past decade, the number of users and bandwidth-hungry applications has significantly increased as well.