 | Scott Petre
is the Vice-President and General Manager of Cox Business Services-Kansas (CBS-KS). He has been in the cable telecommunications for 22 years. In the early 90's, Scott managed the cable system upgrades which introduced fiber optics to the network, readying it for expanded channel capacity and high speed Internet services. Following that, he had the responsibility of launching Road Runner, which is Cox's high-speed Internet provider. CBS is an affiliate of Cox Communications, Inc., and is one of the largest providers of broadband service in the nation. Cox Business Services products include high-speed Internet solutions for businesses, data and video point-to-point transport systems, Virtual Private Networks, Web Hosting, E-commerce and business e-mail. Unlike other telecommunication providers who lease facilities from a telephone co., Cox owns and uses its own facilities, which allows Cox to serve its customers more effectively. CBS serves customers across Kansas, including Wichita, Hutchinson, Salina, Topeka, Manhattan, Pittsburg, Coffeyville, Junction City, Dodge City, Garden City, Great Bend and others. You can reach Scott at (316) 262-4270 or any of the sales or customer service reps at 316-858-4227 or 800-620-6196. |
Communications
2002-02-01 15:35:00
Explain 'broadband'
Question: Explain the terms "Broadband" and "Narrowband" as they relate to the Internet and a Telecommunications network.Answer: To understand the term broadband and narrowband, one can think of it as lanes of a highway. The wider a highway is, the more vehicles there are that can travel on it. In a telecommunications network, information is carried on frequencies (vehicles carrying information) and because a wide band of frequencies can be available, information can be carried on many different frequencies or channels. A broadband network will allow many frequencies (vehicles) to be carried simultaneously, in a given amount of time. These types of networks are usually based on fiber optics and coaxial cable and are capable of carrying hundreds of frequencies to an end user, simultaneously. Talking on the phone while channel surfing on the TV and surfing the Internet at high speeds, all at the same time, over the same network, is one of the feats accomplished by broadband technology. Conversely, a narrowband system is more limited in the amount of information that can be transmitted as it can use only a very narrow band of frequencies. In other words narrowband is like a one-lane information highway vs. the superhighway of broadband. By these definitions, you have probably figured out by now that not all Internet providers are capable of offering Internet service via a broadband network. A typical dial-up service is considered to be narrowband because it uses twisted pair (phone line) which was originally designed to carry only audio signals (telephone voice) and it has a limited ability to carry many more frequency channels than that. As a result, the Internet download speeds on a dial-up connection will be slower as they are limited to speeds of up to 56K, or 56,000 bits per second. By contrast, a typical broadband Internet connection allows users to download at speeds of 1.5 Mbps, or 1,500,000 bits per second and higher.
