Internet access is a service that provides access to the global system of interconnected computer networks known as the Internet. Consumer use first became popular through dial-up connections in the 20th century. By the 21st century, most products were marketed using the term "broadband".
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Internet use around the world has been growing rapidly. With market saturation the phase of rapid growth is ending in industrialized countries, but the spread continues in Asia,[1] Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Middle East. For example, the PC Conectado program helped the industry to grow in Brazil.
Approximately 500 million broadband subscribers were in service in 2010.[2]
To promote economic development and reduction of the digital divide, national broadband plans from around the world promote the universal availability of affordable broadband connectivity.
The United Nations has proposed that Internet access should be a human right. This push was made when it called for universal access to basic communication and information services at the UN Administrative Committee on Coordination. In 2003, during the World Summit on the Information Society, another claim for this was made.[3][4]
In some countries such as Estonia,[5] France, [6] Spain,[7] Finland[8] and Greece,[9] Internet access has already been made a human right.
Access to the Internet has grown from 10 million in 1993 to almost 40 million in 1995 and 670 million in 2002. It is estimated that the Internet now has 1.97 billion users. Despite this tremendous growth, Internet access has not been distributed equally throughout the world.[10]
The gap between people with Internet access and those without it is one of the many aspects of digital divide. Digital divide refers to “the gap between people with effective access to information and communications technology (ICT), and those with very limited or no access to ICT”. ICT consists of “televisions, telephones, videos and computers”.[11] Internet access is dependent on access to ICT. Whether someone has access to the Internet can depend greatly on financial status, geographical location as well as government policy. “Low-income, rural, and minority populations have received special scrutiny as the technological "have-nots."[12] Access to computers is the most dominant factor in determining Internet access. The United States has invested billions of dollars in efforts to breach the digital divide and grant Internet access to more people in low-income areas of the United States.[12] In 2009, The National Center for Education Statistics reported 93% of classroom computers had Internet access; and there was about one computer available per every five students. The Obama administration has continued this commitment of breaching the digital divide and expanding Internet to rural and low-income areas through stimulus money.[12]
Government policies play a tremendous role in Internet access. Egypt experienced five days with no Internet access on January 28, 2011 due to a decision made by their president, Hosni Mubarak. The freedom that the people of Egypt had to access information was taken from them. Internet access has changed the way in which many people think and has become an integral part of our economic, political, and social lives. Providing Internet access to more people in the world will allow them to take advantage of the “political, social, economic, educational, and career opportunities” given through Internet access.[10]
One of the great challenges of broadband is to provide service to potential customers in areas of low population density, such as to farmers, ranchers, and small towns. In cities where the population density is high, it is easier for a service provider to recover equipment costs, but each rural customer may require expensive equipment to get connected. While 66% of Americans had an Internet connection in 2010, that figure was only 50% in rural areas, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.[13] Virgin Media advertised over 100 towns across the United Kingdom "from Cwmbran to Clydebank" that have access to their 100 Mbit/s service.[14]
Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISPs) are rapidly becoming a popular broadband option for rural areas.[15] The technology's line-of-sight requirements may hamper connectivity in some areas with hilly and heavily foliated terrain. However, the Tegola project, a successful pilot in remote Scotland, demonstrates that wireless can be a viable option.[16]
The Broadband for Rural Nova Scotia initiative is the only North American program to guarantee access to "100% of civic addresses" in a region. It is based on Motorola Canopy technology. As of Nov. 2011 under 1000 households have reported access problems. Deployment of a new cell network by one Canopy provider (Eastlink) was expected to provide the alternative of 3G/4G service, possibly at a special unmetered rate, for those harder to serve by Canopy. The Nova Scotia provincial government maintained a C$500,000 holdback in trust until all these concerns had been addressed.
Besides offices and residences, there are public places to use the Internet, including libraries and Internet cafes, where computers with Internet connections are available. Some libraries provide stations for connecting users' laptops to local area networks (LANs).
There are wireless Internet access points in public places such as airport halls, in some cases just for brief use while standing. These access points may also provide coin operated computers. Various terms are used, such as "public Internet kiosk", "public access terminal", and "Web payphone". Many hotels also have public terminals, though these are usually fee based.
Coffee shops, shopping malls and other venues also offer wireless access to computer networks, referred to as hotspots, for users who bring their own wireless-enabled devices such as a laptop or PDA. These services may be free to all, free to customers only, or fee-based. A hotspot need not be limited to a confined location. The whole campus or park, or even the entire city can be enabled. Grassroots efforts have led to wireless community networks.
Traditionally, Internet service providers have used an "unlimited" or flat rate model, with pricing determined by the maximum bitrate chosen by the customer, rather than an hourly charge. With increased consumer demand for streaming content such as video on demand and peer-to-peer file sharing, the use of high bandwidth applications has increased rapidly.
For ISPs who are bandwidth limited, the flat rate pricing model may become unsustainable as demand for bandwidth increases. Fixed costs represent 80-90% of the cost of providing broadband service, and although most ISPs keep their cost secret, the total cost (January 2008) is estimated to be about $0.10 per gigabyte.
Currently some ISPs estimate that about 5% of users consume about 50% of the total bandwidth.[17]
To ensure these high-bandwidth users do not slow down the network, many ISPs have split their users’ bandwidth allocations into 'peak' and 'off peak', encouraging users to download large files late at night.[18]
In order to provide additional high bandwidth pay services[19] without incurring the additional costs of expanding current broadband infrastructure, ISPs are exploring new methods to cap current bandwidth usage by customers.[20]
Some ISPs have begun experimenting with usage-based pricing, notably a Time Warner test in Beaumont, Texas.[21] The effort to expand usage-based pricing into the Rochester, New York area met with public resistance, however, and was abandoned.[22] In Canada, Rogers Hi-Speed Internet and Bell Canada have imposed bandwidth caps on customers.
Broadband Internet access, often shortened to just "broadband" and also known as high-speed Internet, is a term describing a service that provides a bit-rate supported is higher than (or considerably higher than) a 56 kbit/s modem.
Broadband Internet access may give access to Internet services such as:
"Broadband penetration" is now treated as a key economic indicator.[23][24]
Even though information signals generally travel nearly the speed of light in the medium no matter what the bit rate, higher rate services are often marketed as "faster" or "higher speeds".[25] Data is transmitted more quickly over a broadband network in the sense that the number of signals (bits) transmitted per second is higher. Bit rate is a measure of throughput, but latency is also a consideration.
The term broadband was originally a reference to multi-frequency communication, as opposed to baseband. The term adopted a second meaning, which became synonymous with higher-speed data transmission compared with acoustic modems.
The US National Information Infrastructure project during the 1990s brought the term into public policy debates.[26] Broadband became a marketing buzzword for telephone and cable companies to sell their more expensive higher data rate products, especially for Internet access.[27]
In the U.S. National Broadband Plan of 2009 it was defined as "Internet access that is always on and faster than the traditional dial-up access".[28] The same agency has defined it differently through the years.[29]
In 2000, most residential access was by dial-up, while access from businesses was usually by broadband Internet access connections. In subsequent years, dial-up has declined. Wireless and satellite Internet are often available in rural or undeveloped areas where wired Internet is not.
Dial-up modems are limited to a bitrate of about 60 kbit/s and require the dedicated use of a telephone line — whereas broadband technologies supply more than this rate and generally without disrupting telephone use.
Although various minimum bandwidths and maximum latencies have been used in definitions of broadband, ranging from 64 kbit/s up to 4.0 Mbit/s,[30] a 2006 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report[23] defined broadband as having download data transfer rates equal to or faster than 256 kbit/s, while the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as of 2010, defines "Basic Broadband" as data transmission speeds of at least 4 megabits per second, downstream (from the Internet to the user’s computer) and 1 Mbit/s upstream (from the user’s computer to the Internet).[31] The trend is to raise the threshold of the broadband definition as the marketplace rolls out faster services.[32] The standards group CCITT defined "broadband service" in 1988 as requiring transmission channels capable of supporting bit rates greater than the primary rate which ranged from about 1.5 to 2 Mbit/s.[33]
Common consumer broadband technologies such as ADSL are "asymmetric"—supporting much lower maximum upload data rate than download. Data rates are defined in terms of maximum download because in practice, the advertised maximum bandwidth is not always reliably available to the customer. Consumers are also targeted by advertisements for peak transmission rates,[34] while actual end-to-end rates observed in practice can be lower due to other factors.[35] Physical link quality can vary, and ISPs usually allow a greater number of subscribers than their backbone connection or neighbourhood access network can handle, under the assumption that most users will not be using their full connection capacity very frequently. This aggregation strategy (known as a contended service) works more often than not, so users can typically burst to their full bandwidth most of the time; however, peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing systems, often requiring extended durations of high bandwidth usage, violate these assumptions, and can cause major problems for ISPs. In some cases the contention ratio, or a download cap, is agreed in the contract, and businesses and other customers, who need a lower contention ratio or even an uncontended service, are typically charged more.
When traffic is particularly heavy, the ISP can deliberately throttle back users traffic, or just some kinds of traffic. This is known as traffic shaping. Careful use of traffic shaping by the network provider can ensure quality of service for time critical services even on extremely busy networks, but overuse can lead to concerns about network neutrality if certain types of traffic are severely or completely blocked. As consumers continue to adopt broadband services, available speeds are generally increasing. For existing connections, this most of the time simply involves reconfiguring the existing equipment at each end of the connection.
The Broadband for Rural Nova Scotia initiative applied fairly complex criteria to assess an acceptable "broadband" solution for its clients, and rejected some proposals for reasons that had nothing to do with data rate, including usage based billing, high latency, and service throttling.
As the bandwidth delivered to end users increases, the market expects that video on demand services streamed over the Internet will become more popular, though at the present time such services generally require specialized networks. The data rates on most broadband services still do not suffice to provide good quality video, as MPEG-2 video requires about 6 Mbit/s for good results. Adequate video for some purposes becomes possible at lower data rates, with rates of 768 kbit/s and 384 kbit/s used for some video conferencing applications, and rates as low as 100 kbit/s used for videophones using H.264/MPEG-4 AVC. The MPEG-4 format delivers high-quality video at 2 Mbit/s, at the low end of cable modem and ADSL performance.
Common methods of consumer Internet access in 2011 include:
As of 2011, the following methods see a smaller usage share:
At the turn of the century most residential access was by dial-up while access from businesses was usually by higher speed connections. In subsequent years dial-up declined.
Access technologies generally use a modem, which converts digital data to analog for transmission over a particular analog network (ex. the telephone or cable networks).[36]
This technology dials into the network through an existing phone line, creating a semi-permanent link to the Internet.[36] Operating on a single channel, it monopolises the phone line and is the slowest method of accessing the Internet. Dial-up is often the only form of Internet access available in rural areas as it requires no infrastructure, other than the already existing telephone network, to connect to the Internet. Typically, dial-up connections do not exceed a speed of 56 kbit/s, as they are primarily made via a 56k modem.[36]
This term includes a broad range of technologies, all of which provide high data rate access to the Internet. Broadband provides a continuous connection; there is no dial-up/in process required and it does not “hog” phone lines.[36]
The standard broadband technologies in most areas are ADSL and cable Internet. Newer technologies in use include VDSL and pushing optical fibre connections closer to the subscriber in both telephone and cable plants. Fibre-optic communication, while only recently being used in fibre to the premises and fibre to the curb schemes, has played a crucial role in enabling Broadband Internet access by making transmission of information over larger distances much more cost-effective than copper wire technology.
In a few areas not served by cable or ADSL, community organizations have begun to install Wi-Fi networks, and in some cities and towns local governments are installing municipal Wi-Fi networks. The newest technology being deployed for mobile and stationary broadband access is WiMAX and LTE, and other technologies in use include fixed wireless, e.g. Motorola Canopy
From around of 2006, broadband mobile Internet access is increasingly available at the consumer level using "3G" technologies such as HSDPA and EV-DO technologies.
DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) provides a connection to the Internet through the telephone network. Unlike dial-up, DSL can operate using a single phone line without preventing normal use of the telephone line for phone calls. DSL uses the high frequencies, while the low (audible) frequencies of the line are left free for regular telephone communication.[36] These frequency bands are subsequently separated by physical filtering devices added to the telephones.
DSL originally stood for "digital subscriber loop". In telecommunications marketing, the term digital subscriber line is widely understood to mean Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), the most commonly installed technical variety of DSL. The data throughput of consumer DSL services typically ranges from 256 kbit/s to 20 Mbit/s in the direction to the customer (downstream), depending on DSL technology, line conditions, and service-level implementation. In ADSL, the data throughput in the upstream direction, (i.e. in the direction to the service provider) is lower, hence the designation of asymmetric service. With a symmetric digital subscriber line (SDSL), the downstream and upstream data rates are equal.
To provide increased bandwidth over dial-up multilinking technology or modem bonding was developed.[37] It required two modems, two phone lines, two dial-up accounts, and an ISP with support for multilinking - and of course any line and data charges would also be doubled. This inverse multiplexing option was briefly popular with some high-end users before ISDN, DSL and other technologies became available[38] and Diamond and other vendors created special modem with bonding ability.[38][39]
ISDN, a telephone data service standard, was one of the oldest digital access methods for consumers and businesses to connect to the Internet.
A basic rate ISDN line, known as ISDN-BRI, is an ISDN line with 2 data "bearer" channels (DS0 - 64 kbit/s each). These can be bonded together for 256 kbit/s or more and this technology has been used for video conference applications and broadband data transmission. Primary rate ISDN, known as ISDN-PRI, is an ISDN line with 23 DS0 channels and total bandwidth of 1544 kbit/s (US standard). ISDN E1 (European standard) line is an ISDN lines with 30 DS0 channels and total bandwidth of 2048 kbit/s.
Its use peaked in the late 1990s prior to the availability of DSL and cable modem technologies.
Wi-Fi is the standard method to connect a high-speed local area network via wireless transmitter/receiver. WiFi is convenient for mobile Internet users and can bring service to areas where wiring would be costly. WiFi service range is short, and penetration through building walls is limited. Individual homes and small businesses often have a WiFi router for laptops and phones, which is connected to a DSL or cable modem for connection to the larger Internet.
WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) works similarly to WiFi in that it transmits information via airwaves, but it handles network traffic more efficiently. This technology penetrates building walls much more effectively and can be used across larger distances than WiFi.
A cable modem transmits data via airwaves on the cable television infrastructure. Although cables have low interference, comparably high speeds, and allow television use, the cost of bringing service into an area (trenching cable) can be very high. Data is transmitted via coaxial cable or a Hybrid Fiber Coaxial. Cable Internet systems can typically operate where the distance between the modem and the termination system is up to 100 miles (160 km).
Downstream, the direction toward the user, bit rates can be as much as 400 Mbit/s for business connections, and 100 Mbit/s for residential service in some countries. Upstream traffic, originating at the user, ranges from 384 kbit/s to more than 20 Mbit/s. One downstream channel can handle hundreds of cable modems. As the system grows, the cable modem termination system (CMTS) can be upgraded with more downstream and upstream ports, and grouped into hubs CMTS for efficient management.
Fiber optic wires convert electrical signals carrying data into light, and send this light through tiny transparent glass fibers. This method is extremely quick and has little interference. It is more expensive than other methods to deploy. Its speed is dependent on how close the fibers are to one's computer, the amount of bandwidth available, and how the service is configured. Most high-capacity Internet and cable television backbones already use fiber optic technology, with data relayed to other technology (DSL, cable, POTS) for final delivery to customers.
Fiber to the home (FTTH), is essentially similar to cable Internet access, but promised much faster bit-rates - up to 100 Mbit/s. Australia has already begun rolling out the network over the country using fiber-optic cables to 90 percent of Australian homes, schools and business.[40] and similar efforts are underway in Italy[41][42][43] and many other countries.
Satellites in geostationary orbits are able to relay broadband data from the satellite company to each customer. Satellite Internet is usually among the most expensive ways of gaining broadband Internet access, but in rural areas it may be the only choice other than cellular broadband.
Broadband satellite Internet has a inherent high latency due to the signal having to travel to an altitude of 35,786 km (22,236 mi) above sea level (from the equator) out into space to a satellite in geostationary orbit and back to Earth again. The signal delay can be as much as 500 milliseconds to 900 milliseconds, making it unsuitable for applications requiring real-time user input such as remote RDP control, certain multiplayer Internet games, and potentially some VPNs due to latency issues.[44] Satellite Internet providers also often have "Fair Access Policies" that throttle throughput to dial-up data rates after a certain download threshold is reached.
The proposed O3b Satellite Constellation is planned to orbit much lower - in medium earth orbit at an altitude of 8,063 km (5,010 mi) for a much reduced latency of 125 ms. The proposed new network is also designed for much higher throughput with links well in excess of 1 Gbit/s. Orbiting even lower at 1,000 km (620 mi) will be the planned COMMStellation™ scheduled for launch in 2015, expected to have a latency of just 7 ms.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Cellular phone (mobile phone) towers are very widespread, and as cellular networks move to third generation (3G) networks they can support fast data; using technologies such as EVDO, HSDPA and UMTS.
These can give broadband access to the Internet, with a cell phone, with Cardbus, ExpressCard, or USB cellular modems, or with cellular broadband routers, which allow more than one computer to be connected to the Internet using one cellular connection.
According to the international Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), "Wireless broadband subscriptions in OECD countries had exceeded half a billion by the end of 2010, an increase of more than 10 percent on June 2010, according to new OECD statistics." [46] In contrast, fixed broadband subscriptions reached 300 million in 2010.[47]
(See also Cellular Broadband, above)
This typically employs the current low-cost 802.11 Wi-Fi radio systems to link up remote locations over great distances, but can use other higher-power radio communications systems as well.
Traditional 802.11b was licensed for omnidirectional service spanning only 100–150 meters (300–500 ft). By focusing the signal down to a narrow beam with a Yagi antenna it can instead operate reliably over a distance of many kilometres (miles), although the technology's line-of-sight requirements hamper connectivity in areas with hilly and heavily foliated terrain. In addition, compared to hard-wired connectivity, there are security risks (unless robust security protocols are enabled); throughputs are significantly slower (2 – 50 times slower); and the network can be less stable, due to interference from other wireless devices and networks, weather and line-of-sight problems.
Rural Wireless-ISP installations are typically not commercial in nature and are instead a patchwork of systems built up by hobbyists mounting antennas on radio masts and towers, agricultural storage silos, very tall trees, or whatever other tall objects are available. There are currently a number of companies that provide this service..
Broadband over power lines (BPL), also known as power line communication, uses mains power lines to send and receive radio signals. Because of the extensive power line infrastructure already in place, this technology would allow people in rural and low population areas to access the Internet with little cost in terms of equipment, cables or wires.
It has developed faster in Europe than in the US due to a historical difference in power system design philosophies; the US uses a step-down transformer, through which the signal cannot pass, per house whereas in Europe, it is more common for a somewhat larger transformer to service 10 or 100 houses.
Concerns over interference in the 10 to 30 MHz range, used by licensed amateur radio operators, as well as international shortwave broadcasters and a variety of communications systems (military, aeronautical, etc.) have also been an issue, leading to the IEEE P1901 standard specifying that all powerline protocols must detect existing usage and avoid interfering with it.
Leased lines, such as those from T-carriers can carry Internet data over fiber optic lines or copper lines. They are quick but highly regulated and generally intended for business use.
Senior citizens – Internet use among senior citizens is different than internet use among the younger generations. Since they didn’t grow up with the internet around them, they aren’t as attached to the internet and social networking as the younger generations are. More often than not, senior citizens use the internet as a tool to find resources and information ranging from online dating to housing to health to celebrity gossip. On the other hand, some use it as a social networking tool to connect with family and loved ones or as a tool to meet new people.
Wi-Max and 3G/4G technologies in North America are sometimes deployed with usage based billing making them impractical for some main applications.
Satellite Internet access is inherently high latency for physical reasons and thus cannot satisfy all definitions of broadband. It is always described by satellite vendors as high speed, evading latency concerns.
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