Submitted by Steven Watson, Forest County Digital Navigator
We’ve come a long way since the days of screeching modems and slow dial up downloads. Sure it might have been annoying waiting for a page to load or setting up a long download to run overnight but that was our world and we lived with it. A lot has changed since then.
Now we have access to streaming high definition video at the click of a button, endless hours of music, web pages with fancy animations, and games that would take years to download on that slow 56kb connection. There are also more people online and everyone wants a chunk of that bandwidth to get online. There’s only one solution. If we want more, we gotta go fast!
What is Broadband internet?
Broadband is a term that is being used more and more frequently as our internet infrastructure grows. A network is considered broadband if it has high capacity to transmit lots of different data very fast. These networks have to be robust enough to handle the traffic of entire towns or cities all trying to access the internet at once which is no easy task!
To be considered broadband the FCC requires a network to have a connection speed of 25Mbps, Megabytes per Second. For comparison, those copper dial up connections were about 0.06 Mbps.
What are the options for Broadband?
What kind of networks are considered “broadband”? Let’s take a quick look.
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) utilizes the copper wiring used for telephone service and can get up to 100Mbps, but in rural areas it tends to cap at 8-12Mbps.
Fixed Wireless networks rely on a local tower to transmit data wirelessly to your home. Typical speeds range from 25-50 Mbps. These towers are then connected to Fiber Optic networks to transmit data to the internet.
Satellite internet involves having a dish with a clear view of the night sky to communicate with a satellite in orbit. Most satellite providers offer about 100Mbps.
Mobile networks use cell phone towers to transmit data. 4G networks have speeds of about 100Mbps and 5G 1,000 Mbps.
Cable relies on coaxial cables typically mounted on utility poles that can provide 1,000Mbps.
Fiber Optic networks use buried cables with a glass core that use lasers to shine light from one end to the other. These cables can transmit data at roughly 6,000Mbps.
Quick note, the speeds listed assume ideal conditions across the network. In home at peak hours your Fiber connection might look like 300-500 Mbps which is still pretty darn fast!
If broadband networks are so fast, why does it take so long to get it?
There are challenges involved with every type of broadband network. For DSL speeds depend on how close you are to the provider while for Mobile and Fixed Wireless it relies on how far you are from a tower and the local topography. Fiber Optic is the most ideal connection because light can transmit data extraordinarily fast but these networks take some of the longest to build.
Fiber Optic networks are expensive, the cables are made of glass and miles and miles of it need to be buried underground. Providers also make their money from subscribers and in rural areas there’s usually not enough customers to justify the cost so projects typically rely on Government or grant funding. In order to make the network reliable you also need more than one main line of Fiber. If one line is broken the other makes sure everyone stays connected. Finally, all of this needs to happen before they can start finally connecting those lines to your home.
It takes time, but in the end, it’s worth it!
If you want to learn more about broadband you can reach out to your Digital Navigator!
Steve Watson – Forest County Digital Navigator
steve.watson@co.forest.wi.us
715-478-7793 Office
715-784-1415 Mobile
Drop-in hours are Monday & Thursday from Noon-4:30pm
Additional hours available by appointment. Learn more about the programs and services of UW-Madison Division of Extension Forest County at https://forest.extension.wisc.edu or call 715.478-7797.
