How Does Broadband Work?

Pew Research says that 93% of American adults are online. About 75% of Americans have a broadband connection to access the internet at home.

What is broadband? It’s the connection that transmits data from your home to the internet. It’s another way of saying high-speed internet.

Broadband connections have the capacity to download at least 25 megabytes of data per second and upload a minimum of 3 megabytes per second.

There are broadband connections that now reach over a gigabyte of data per second.

How does broadband work? Read on to learn how broadband works in this complete broadband guide.

How Does Broadband Work?

The average American uses 34 gigabytes of data on a daily basis. The average person streams video content, scrolls social media a few times a day, checks email, and works online.

All of that data has to get sent out and received. That’s where a broadband connection comes into play.

When you send data across the internet, such as clicking a link, it gets taken apart into data packets. The data packets get sent from your computer through a broadband connection.

The data packets travel across the internet to their intended destination, an internet server. That server receives a request and sends data packets from its connection across the internet to your broadband connection.

Your broadband connection receives the data and sends it to your device, where it gets put back together into a cohesive website or video.

Broadband affects the speed and quality of that interaction. If you have a limited broadband connection, that interaction will happen slowly.

Is Broadband the Same as WiFi?

There’s too much data for your broadband connection to process at once, slowing down the process. However, a fast broadband connection has the capacity to process more data at once.

Does your home or office have a WiFi connection, too? How does broadband differ from Wifi?

WiFi is a wireless internet connection. When data travels to your home, it goes through your broadband connection. For the broadband connection to send the data to the right device, it goes through a router.

The router has the capacity for ethernet and WiFi connections. You typically use WiFi to connect to a broadband connection.

Even though the two terms get used interchangeably, they’re two very different things.

Types of Broadband Connections

We’ve come a long way from dial-up connections. As easy as it is to make fun of the old dial-up connections to access the internet, we have to recognize how valuable they were in creating the broadband connections we have today.

Dial-up internet allowed data to get transmitted across copper phone lines. The maximum speed was around 56 kbps. It would take several minutes to load a website by that standard.

Forget about watching any video content at all.

Fortunately, there are different types of broadband connections that deliver high-speed internet so you can watch, surf, and play games at the same time.

DSL

A Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) connection uses the same concept as a dial-up connection. It sends and receives data over phone lines.

This is great for older buildings because it eliminates the need to install new wiring for a broadband connection.

There are two types of DSL connections: ADSL and SDSL.

ADSL means Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line. It’s used in cases where internet users receive more data than they send, like residential customers who stream videos.

SDSL is a Symmetrical Digital Subscriber Line. This is used by businesses who need to send and receive similar amounts of data for voice over IP calls, video calls, and other activities.

T1 and Ethernet

Both T1 and Ethernet connections travel over copper wires. They have the capacity to carry more data than DSL lines, which is why they’re both used by businesses.

Ethernet connections get transmitted over fiber and cable networks in addition to copper lines. Learn more here about business ethernet and how it compares to T1 connections.

Cable Broadband

Cable broadband transmits and receives data over coaxial cable lines. These are similar to copper wires, but they use materials that block interference and allow signals to travel faster.

Cable is usually faster than DSL lines because of the way coaxial cables are built.

Fiber Broadband

The fastest broadband connection you can get today is through fiber broadband. This broadband connection uses fiber-optic cables, which are thin, glass wires.

These wires have the capacity to carry a gigabyte per second. Fiber plans aren’t available everywhere, but its adoption rate continues to increase.

Mobile Broadband

The majority of global internet traffic comes from mobile devices. Mobile broadband connections make it easy to access the internet.

Mobile broadband works the same way as wired broadband connections. Data packets get sent over the air using 3G, 4G, or 5G connections.

How to Get the Right Broadband Package

Whether you’re getting a broadband connection for home or work, you want to make sure you get a broadband connection that is fast enough for your needs.

Start with how you access the internet. If you work or live with others, take their usage into consideration.

Count the number of devices that connect to the internet at once. This includes everything from laptops to tablets to WiFi coffee makers.

Think of your broadband connection as a pipe. If your home or work sends a lot of data at one time, you’ll need a bigger pipe.

In the case of broadband, you’ll need a faster connection to handle all of that data.

Read reviews of broadband companies in your area. You’ll find that some live up to their promises of fast internet, while others don’t.

Read the contract carefully before you sign up. Make sure you understand the early termination fees and if you have to have a long contract period for a sign-up promotion.

Broadband Explained: How Broadband Works

How does broadband work? It breaks data down so you can send and receive it over copper, coaxial, or fiber wires.

This broadband guide showed you the types of broadband and you have broadband tips to get the right package for your needs.

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