10. Summary of broadband connection options
Item |
Telephone |
Cable |
Wireless |
Leased |
Satellite |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bandwidth | 2 - 8 Mbps | 20-50Mbps | 7 Mbps | 100 - 10,000 Mbps | 4 Mbps |
Asymmetric | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Cost | Low | Low | Low-Medium | High | Low-Medium |
Contention ratio | Med - high | Low | Medium-high | None | Unaffected. See note ** |
Reach | much of UK but slow or non-existent in rural areas | Mainly cities | Anywhere with a mobile signal | Anywhere (at a cost) | Anywhere that has view of the satellite |
Technology | Copper wire | Coax and Fibre | 3G radio band | Fibre | Satellite microwave bands |
Note **: The satellite obviously has thousands of customers using the service at the same time, indicating high contention. But the system was designed from the outset with this capacity in mind and so satellite ISPs claim an advantage over normal ADSL because it is unaffected by peak time traffic - hence the 'contention' is effectively, low.
challenge see if you can find out one extra fact on this topic that we haven't already told you
Click on this link: Satellite broadband