A little Microsoft humor...

[Paul Lussier]

"Thomas Charron" <twaffle at gmail.com> writes:

>     'Broadband Internet access, often shortened to "broadband
> Internet" or just "broadband", is a high data-transmission rate
> Internet connection.'
>
>   I wonder how to term broadband actually got mixed it to mean 'high
> data rate', besides just sounding cooler.  I'm betting it was cable
> companies which first coined it.

Well, it was cable companies who first started using the term
'Broadband', because that's exactly what they provided.  And when they
first started out, they were delivering a much faster connection than
was commercially available for the common consumer.  I remember when
MediaOne was touting a 256K connection.  That was 5x faster than
dial-up.  Since then, with xDSL coming on the scene and the telcos
getting in the mix, it's been an arms race to see who can provide the
fastest connections for the least amount of money (despite completely
over-subscribing them).  Overall, we consumers who have such
connections have really won out.  10 years ago that 256K connection
cost about $50/month.  Today, we have 1Mbps+ connections at about
$50/month!

So, from a consumer perspective, there are two choices for internet:
Broadband and Dial-up.  Broadband == high speed, Dial-up == slow
speed.
-- 
Seeya,
Paul