Then a bunch of people got together and decided that there must be a better way. They used wires a bit thicker than telephone wire and sent more packaged signals. Broadband was born. The basic meaning of ‘broadband’ is a set of electronically delivered signals sent at a speed faster than telephone signals. The higher speed allows for richer, more complicted web pages, music, videos etc to be sent more or less at real time. Nowadays the only people who still use telephone lines as their main input source either are located way in the sticks or use the internet only as a toy, not as a part of their occupation.

Early in the days of broadband there were some people who wanted certain strict criteria applied before the ‘broadband’ label could be applied. That might be a good idea, but those sticklers lost the debate. Nowadays almost any speed or size line can be called ‘broadband’ s long as it’s faster than average telephone lines. Consumers sign on to get various ‘broadband’ services and get a wide variety of speeds of dowload delivered. The differences in speeds matter to someone using their lines as part of a commercial enterprise. If all the customers cannot be served properly, that matters to the company. But most consumers are satisfied with whatever brodband speed they get as long as 1) the game plays smoothly, 2) the movie or video (sometimes including XXX movies) plays smoothly or 3) the surfer can surf from page to page with the minimum of interruptions.

If you are a stickler for detail, “broadband’ will not easily fit into a single definition.