Sunday 10 July 2011

The Future Of Broadband Technology



Over the last 10 years, broadband internet access speeds have increased so dramatically that it is hard to believe that it used to take a few minutes to open simple web pages. In some countries, like Japan and France, internet access speeds of over 50 Megabits per second are the average.

 A few years ago, in Sweden, the fastest internet connection speed was recorded at an astonishing 40 Gigabits per second. With these speeds it is difficult to imagine a time with only dial-up connections available. With current technologies, most countries are now reaching the limit of what their current internet infrastructure is capable of. However, replacing the telecommunications infrastructure of a country in order to improve broadband speeds is much harder than it may sound, but in order to reach speeds up to what is possible even now, an optical cable connection is needed.

Research has shown that it may actually be possible to use current electrical power lines to send data, however, there are some problems that must be overcome if this is going to be the future of internet communication. Although internet communication data works on different frequencies than electrical power, some research has shown that it can interfere with radio signals and thus disrupting radio operation. Though if this problem is addressed, it may be possible to connect to the internet just by plugging into an electrical socket. Test have shown possible speeds of 45 Mbps, and with a hardware upgrade, 200 Mbps could be achieved. Another option from using broadband over power lines (BPL), is WIMAX. WIMAX is the latest form of wireless data transfer, also known as 4G. A huge improvement on previous forms of mobile broadband, WIMAX will be able to offer users the ability to connect to the internet wirelessly at a range of 30 miles from the wireless transmitter plus with connection speeds of up to 70 Mbps.

The last possibility for the future of broadband access is satellite systems. Satellite internet connections are potentially able to offer users broadband internet connection speeds of up to 3 Gbps, or 3000Mbps. Many people around the world already receive data via a satellite in the form of satellite television, though the costs involved in setting up internet access can range up to $3000 including installation.

Also another problem facing satellite connections is weather patterns, which can occasionally disrupt signal transfer as current satellite television users known well. To sum up, don't worry if you are still finding that your broadband connection is not quick enough for your needs, the future holds some impressive advances in technology that will mean the end of blank white screens and video buffering.

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