Basic Broadband Question

Cork

With broadband - How is your PC connected to the net?

Do you need to utilise a copper telephone line?

(Sorry 4 my complete lack on knowledge on broadband)

Ripwave

Originally posted by Cork
With broadband - How is your PC connected to the net?

Do you need to utilise a copper telephone line?

(Sorry 4 my complete lack on knowledge on broadband)

There are 3 common ways to connect to broadband

1. DSL, using a copper telphone wire
2. Cable, using the coaxial cable that the TV signal is provided on
3. Wireless, using an aerial on your roof to communicate with a central transmitter

In other countries, Cable and DSL have been in competition, and created a fairly vigorous market. In Ireland, the cable internet market is moribund, with only a couple of thousand homes capable of getting the service. Wireess isn't that big a factor in other markets, but because oreillycom decided it would rather have you pay 1.26c/minute to connect to the internet, we're years behind other countries on the DSL front, so there are a couple of different providers in the Wireless arena. This might really start to grow later this year, when the companies that receives licenses to use the 3.5GHz spectrum start to roll out new services, but we'll have to wait and see.