Category: broadband

In the internet service provider world, the most common providers today are cable and DSL. The old solution for internet access was dial up, which was slow and often interrupted by an in-coming phone call. It was not a viable solution for a working business or even an avid home internet user since downloads and even page loading took minutes if not hours in some cases.

Cable was the next to come on the market as a broadband internet solution and is probably still considered the best broadband provider on the market. It was and is much faster than dial up connections. It is also available in most cities, wherever cable TV is offered. Since services can be bundled, it is also one of the cheapest options on the market today. DSL is newer to the market, but also offers bundled services which make it fairly inexpensive. DSL is not quite as available as cable in that customers have to live within a certain vicinity of the main phone company, so service may either be unavailable to some customers or not up to the optimum speeds that customers closer to the office experience.

What if Cable and DSL Are Not Options?

If cable and DSL services are not an option, then satellite broadband providers are the best choice on the market today. In some rural areas there is not cable or DSL service available. In that case, placing a satellite in a clear area where it has an open scope to the south allows customers to have access to broadband service. The speed of satellite broadband providers is not as fast as cable or DSL at present, but it is still much faster than dial up connections.

The main deterrent from using a satellite broadband provider is the cost. Buying a satellite dish can be expensive, depending on the type of service desired. One way service still makes the customer use dial up in connection with the satellite service for downloads. Dishes that use one way connection are cheaper, running anywhere from $100-150 in most electronic stores. The sacrifice for the price is speed.

Satellite internet providers also offer a two-way method which allows for much quicker download times, but the price of the equipment needed goes up dramatically to between $400-500. In addition there is cost for installation, since most people are unable to do it themselves. One other option for those customers who have satellite TV is to buy a LNB, or low noise blocker, so that the same dish can be used for both services.

Over the last eight years a plethora of new internet service providers have sprung up according to the rising need in the market. The first internet service providers were dial up providers. There were and are several problems with a dial up internet service.

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The first issue is that the service was and remains slow. In addition, while using the internet, there is no ability to use the phone, which limits day to day activity, and is especially a problem for small businesses. Internet service would also get cut off inadvertently through incoming phone calls being made, which made users lose time and sometimes information.

Internet service providers saw the need for other ways to provide internet service to their customers. The solution at present is the broadband internet provider. Broadband internet providers allow users to surf the internet at much greater speeds than ever before, in some cases over seventy times the speed of a dial up connection. Due to this improvement, the web has changed so that music and video downloads are available from a variety of sources, pictures can easily be uploaded and saved in various web-based albums, and applications that were not viable in the past due to the bandwidth and download times of the past are now expanding and changing every day.

Options

There are many different broadband internet providers to choose from. These providers fall into different types of broadband service categories. Some of the most common providers on the market are AT&T, Comcast, Roadrunner, AOL, Verizon and Earthlink.

The cheapest broadband internet providers are the cable providers, although DSL providers are currently close behind. Cable provides fast, reliable service to customers wherever cable access is found. The cable internet runs through the same wires as the cable TV signals run through, which allows users to bundle their services, saving them money. The problem with cable is that when there is high usage, the bandwidth cannot handle the capacity and the speed of service is reduced. Some providers even block internet usage for some customers if they go beyond the allowed amount in order to try and solve the bandwidth issue.

DSL broadband internet providers also allow bundled services since their services run through the phone lines. The problem with DSL is that the customer has to live within a certain radius of the main phone company or the speed of service starts to reduce the further away the customer lives.

Satellite broadband providers are another means of obtaining quick internet service; however they are the most expensive of the bunch. The main reason for the expense is the purchase of the satellite dish and installation of that dish.