broadband
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broadband
(1) High-speed transmission. The term commonly refers to Internet access via a variety of high-speed networks, including cable, DSL, FiOS, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, 3G, 4G and satellite, all of which are...
Dictionary
Definition: broadband
(1) High-speed transmission. The term commonly refers to Internet access via a variety of high-speed networks, including cable, DSL, FiOS, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, 3G, 4G and satellite, all of which are considerably faster than analog dial-up; in some cases by a huge magnitude. For example, a high-speed cable plan is more than a thousand times faster than dial-up, and a top FiOS plan is more than 3,000 times faster.
The term has always referred to a higher-speed connection, but the speed threshold varies with the times. Widely employed in companies, the 1.5 Mbps T1 line was often considered the starting point for broadband speeds, while the FCC had defined broadband as a minimum upload speed of 200 Kbps. The T1 line is no longer the coveted connection for Web surfing. Home users with broadband service experience speeds many times that of T1. See broadband router, wireless broadband, T1, cable modem and DSL.
(2) Transmitting data by modulating a carrier wave in order to differentiate it from other signals in the air or in a single line. For example, frequency division multiplexing (FDM) is used to carry hundreds of channels of analog and digital TV in a single coaxial cable. In this context, broadband is used in contrast with "baseband," which is data that has not been modulated or multiplexed (see baseband and TDM). In most cases, the term "broadband" is used for high-speed transmission as in definition #1 above.
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