The Internet is one of the powerful communication medium to share and to exchange ideas and information through the use of computers and other infrastructure such as routers and servers. The integration of different technologies has resulted in the convergence of textual data, graphics, video, and voice for transmission. The power of the Internet has been restricted by the speed of the Internet and the availability of the infrastructure. The infrastructure is the local Internet service provider. Conventional Internet transmits data through modem and the telephone. The speed is constrained by the availability of free space in the telephone lines and is very often less than 256 kbps. This meant that uploading and downloading of information took minutes and sometimes hours. The availability of new technologies has enabled high speed Internet access with a minimum of 256 kbps and sometimes more than 1.5 Mbps. Broadband, as the collection of technologies is called, achieves this through the use of Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL), cable, wireless, ISDN, and satellite. Satellite Internet connects the computer to the Internet service provider through a satellite orbiting miles above the earth. Satellites provide telephone, television, and also Internet connectivity. Satellite Internet doesnt require telephone lines. The computer is connected to a dish, and the information is sent to the satellite and from there, to the service provider. Satellite Internet is useful in remote locations such as rural areas and in mobile areas such as vessels. Because of the long-distance links between dish and the satellite, there is always a delay in sending data, and hence for this reason satellite Internet is not useful in critical applications such as online gaming and real-time share trading. Another limitation is that very bad weather will affect reception. It is one of the new evolving technologies, and therefore the costs of installation and monthly fees are high. It is the most expensive service among the broadband services. Hence, there are few service providers such as Directway and Starband. |
