subject: Dsl, Cable, Satellite, Mobile Broadband: High Speed Internet In Nashville [print this page] These days, a high speed Internet connection is a pretty mandatory tool in most peoples everyday lives. Known in general as broadband, these connections are much faster than the dial up connections that people used to rely on. If you are a resident of Nashville, Tennessee, or somewhere in the surrounding area, there area number of different ways that you can go about getting the high speed Internet connections you need. For the most part, you will be able to choose among four basic types of service that deliver broadband speeds. These are DSL, cable, satellite, and wireless mobile broadband. Just how fast each of these various services is as well as whether or not a given service is available to you will depend on where specifically your home is located. The following descriptions will give you a better understand of the several types of high speed Internet available to Nashville, Tennessee, residents.
1. DSL. Short for Digital Subscriber Line, the technology behind this type of service actually utilizes the same phone lines that dial up service uses. The main difference is that DSL signals are transmitted in digital format, where as dial up signals are send and received in analog format. This accounts for a huge difference in speed between the two types of service. To give you an idea of just how big a difference this is, DSL speed is measured in megabytes, whereas dial up speed is measured in kilobytes. There are over one thousand kilobytes in a single megabyte.
2. Cable. This type of broadband service is distributed by the same companies that provide cable television and makes use of the same cables lines that support cable television. As far as maximum possible speeds go, cable Internet service is capable of the fastest connections out of all types of broadband connections. However, in terms of average speed, there is not much of a difference between how fast cable is and how fast DSL is.
3. Satellite. While not quite as fast as the two services listed above, satellite service is a good alternative for people who live outside the city or in an area where the wires needed to connect to a DSL or cable network are not available. As is the case with cable television and Internet, satellite television and Internet services can be bundled, as well.
4. Mobile Broadband. This fairly new wireless service can be used either for stationary or mobile Internet access. The latest versions of this type of service are capable of delivering connection speeds that compete with some of the fastest broadband services out there. In some places, like Nashville, a series of long range WiMax towers are used to transmit signals across coverage areas that span the entire city. Nashville subscribers can connect to their local WiMax network using either a laptop with a portable USB plug in modem or a compatible 4G cell phone. This service is becoming more and more popular among people who need to have constant access to the Internet no matter where they go.
