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