What is BroadBand ?

Everything you always wanted to learn about broadband ... without spending a lot of time.

Broadband is the always-open gateway to a new world of Internet-based services delivered at lightning-fast speeds to households and businesses.  In effect, broadband is a huge digital pipeline that links consumers to the Internet's deepening pool of news, information, entertainment and data. Relying on digital and fiber-optic technologies, broadband eliminates the "world wide wait" that plagues slower Internet-access services .

 A broadband connection to the Internet can be as much as 100 times faster than a "dial-up" service, which uses a copper-based telephone line to connect to the Internet. Indeed, broadband turns surfing the World Wide Web into a sprint, rather than a crawl. What's more, a broadband connection is always on. You don't have to make a telephone call every time you want to connect your computer to the Internet.

Broadband opens up a new multimedia world in which all kinds of information -- text, graphics, audio and video -- can be delivered to a PC and other devices. That information can then be translated into such traditional forms of entertainment and information as television shows, movies and radio formats. That same digitally based information also can be used to create entirely new forms of multimedia forms, including:

1) Interactive TV that lets viewers change camera angles and play along with game- show contestants.

2) 3-dimensional games that let players engage with people across the street, as well as on the other side of the world.

3) E-mail that can carry live video and sound.

4) Instantaneous video conferencing services.