The Beginnings of the Internet.....
As Broadband enables us to surf the Internet, lets start with a very brief look at the history of the Internet. Some suggest that we need to start way back in the 1950’s, when the US Military were researching methods for better communication networks. This ultimately led to a project called “ARPANET” in the late 1960’s by the United States Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA). The idea of this was to create new networking technologies to allow research centers and universities to link to each other. However, it wasn’t until a group headed by Steve Crocker in the 1970’s developed a protocol called TCP/IP that the Internet really began its journey, as we know it today. TCP/IP is the backbone protocol of the Internet. You can consider it as a language that all the parts of the network use to talk to each other. If you are suddenly wondering what the Internet really is it is basically a network of computers and servers.
The Internet becomes Available.....
Fast forward to the mid 1980’s, bypassing lots of development, and now the Internet was ready for everyone else. So the Internet was ready but there was no means for consumers to use it (other than universities, research centers and military establishments). The birth of “dial-up” allowed residential users to connect to the Internet. This helped gain popularity for the Internet, but suffered from two major downsides; it was painfully slow and you needed a dedicated phone line to connect. Push the fast forward button again and we are in the early 2000’s when broadband really started to become available to consumers. This breathed a whole new life into the Internet.
The Beginnings of Broadband.....
Since the early 2000’s broadband has gone from strength to strength, and available speeds have become faster and faster. Initially it was slow to take off due to the few companies that provided broadband access and the high cost to the consumer. As Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) grew, so did the competition. As the competition grew, the prices started to drop and became affordable to the consumer causing a huge growth in Broadband
for the home.
Broadband becomes Mainstream.....
Now that there are more and more ISP’s it has become a buyers market. There are now more people using Broadband high-speed Internet service in their homes than there are using dial-up. For the people who already have Broadband, it’s always worth checking out some of the
newest deals as ISP’s try and grab a bigger piece of the pie.
Broadband Today and Beyond.....
With the Internet growing at exponential rates and more and more applications related to Broadband access becoming available, such as digital photos, downloading music, downloading movies, and high speed gaming with people you have never even met, the future for Broadband appears very bright. Not only is Broadband access growing in the home but for
business
use also. More and more businesses are utilizing Broadband access to help their growth. There are even broadband Internet solutions for hotels and vacation resorts so people can stay in touch while away from home. Our children are growing up where Broadband and Internet usage is commonplace, just like the wireless radio or television were commonplace to some of us when we were growing up.
Want to Know More About Broadband.....
If you would like to learn more about what Broadband is, the benefits of
Broadband, what types of Broadband are available, as well as how each Broadband
type works, then the following articles may be of interest. Just click on the
one that interests you to open the article.
Please note that the above is a very brief look at what is the history of Broadband from the beginnings of the Internet to the availability of Broadband today.
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