ralphy said:
Am I alone in my complete lack of understanding of this technobabble?
There are degrees of misunderstanding, but yours Ralph is unique!
Seriouly though, getting a high-speed always-on Internet connection in a rural village is difficult. Cheddar where I live is a large village and has just been connected. Smaller villages like Wedmore nearby will never be connected by BT because the cost is too high. This leaves room for smaller companies than BT to step in and provide connections using technology that uses radio based wireless connections instead of coming down your phone line. A good example in Somerset is
Lambda Broadband, an ISP who have setup high speed networks by putting antenna on top of the village churches that people in the village can connect to via radio using a small antenna stuck on the side of their houses. A nice case study of the setup can be found
here....
So why all the babble about broadband in the first place?
First of all the connection is always on. No need to dial up and tie up a phone line. The data can come up and down your phone line at any time - even when you are talking on the phone.
Second is the speed - up to 10 times faster than a modem even for the basic services.
Third is the cost. AOL costs £17 per month with freephone dialup numbers. BT charge less for dialup but restrict the number of hours that you can dial up. A high speed broadband connection can cost as little as £21 per month using ADSL. You pay the same each month regardless of how much you use the service. Even the radio based systems (if your village has them) only cost around £30 per month with about £100 to install and setup the radio equipment at your house.
Hope this clears it up a bit (though I suspect it won't!!!)
Mike
