Where is it available?
Connecting to Broadband
Who offers broadband services?
Broadband services are offered by Internet Service Providers or ISPs. Your ISP is your gateway to the Internet and provides the following services:
- An ISP provides a local computer (or server) to which you connect using a modem. From there you can access the rest of the world wide web.
- An ISP translates addresses that you type on your computer into physical locations and delivers your messages and information requests to the correct location, anywhere in the world.
- An ISP sends and collects your email messages for you.
- An ISP can host your web site - i.e. they will store your website on their computer so that it is always accessible to other people browsing the Internet, even when your computer is switched off.
- Most ISPs offer a proxy server - a computer which stores a copy of the most frequently downloaded web sites. This gives you faster access to these pages as your web browser need only access the proxy server, instead of a computer that is possibly on the other side of the world.
For further information on ISPs currently providing broadband services in Australia visit www.broadbandxchange.org/sas/c02p021.htm
Is broadband available everywhere?
To have access to ADSL technology your local telephone exchange must be ADSL enabled, you must live within approximately 3.5 km of the telephone exchange and your telephone line must be ADSL compatible. To find out if ADSL is available to you now visit www.broadbandxchange.org/sas/adsl.asp
Cable Internet services are now available to approximately 2.7 million Australian homes in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and some regional centres. If cable pay TV is available in your area then there is a high probability that a cable broadband Internet connection will also be available to your business. Satellite technology provides an alternative access mode where other technologies are not available.
What do I need to know about broadband before I talk to an Internet Service Provider?
Broadband Speeds
The speed at which information travels between your computer and the Internet is measured in either kbit/s (kilobits per second) or Mbit/s (megabits per second). One kilobit is one thousand bits and one megabit is 1,000 kilobits, where a bit is simply an electronic unit of information.
Broadband connections are generally asymmetric. This means that the speed at which you download information from the Internet ( i.e. receive information such as email or web pages) is different from the speed at which you upload (i.e. send information to the Internet such as email, requests for web pages). Typically upload speeds are slower than download speeds, but as you will often download much more information than you upload, a fast download speed is more critical.
Broadband speeds will typically be advertised in the format download speed/upload speed. For example, the advertised speed 512/128 means the service will let you download information at a maximum speed of 512 kbit/s and upload at a maximum of 128 kbit/s.
Symmetric connections, where the upload and download speeds are the same, are available but are usually more expensive than asymmetric connections.
Upload and Download Limits
Most ISPs set a limit on the amount of data you can upload or download for your monthly access fee over a given period of time, usually one month. This limit can range from 250 Mbytes to several Gbytes, depending on the plan you choose. Some service providers include upload traffic in their limits, others do not count upload traffic at all. (A byte is a measure of data, one byte equates to one character.)
