In the acronym-ridden world of broadband, JOHN HARRIS offers a menu of what is available - now and in the future.

Back in the old days, shortly after the demise of smoke signals, Internet access was a simple matter to understand.

If you had a telephone line and modem, you could pay for Internet access that limped rather than ran. Your modem – a grafted amputation of the words modulator and demodulator – was a device to let one computer talk with another computer via a telephone line.

Today, Internet access is a bewildering confusion of choice and jargon that is enough to scramble your acronyms. So, here’s a simple rundown the various ways you can access the Internet, both now and in the future.

The modem continues to function, but does not carry enough data to be really useful in the modern world of broadband – the “pipe” is just not big enough for what we want to pump down it.

However, if you’re close enough to a telephone exchange – 4km or maybe a bit further – you may be able to get the most popular form of Internet access, ADSL.

ADSL Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line) uses otherwise dormant frequencies on your phone line to transfer data between your PC and your Internet service provider’s gear.

There are various types of ADSL operating at various speeds. The faster your speed, the smoother broadband works, especially data intensive services like playing music or video from the Internet.

BTW, ADSL is described as asynchronous because it goes faster from the Internet to your home than from your home to the Internet.

However some people are too far from a phone exchange to get ADSL: Fortunately carriers like Telstra and Optus love to find new ways to make more money, so they are selling “data services” delivered by their 3G mobile phone networks.

While 3G is slower and more expensive than ADSL, it does have much greater reach.

But the Federal Government does not think this is good enough for Australia’s future: It is currently planning to spend as much as $43 billion on a fibre-optic National Broadband Network.

With this, a glass fibre will run from a service provider to your home, offering the capacity to transport vast amounts of data into your world: It will deliver virtual reality to your doorstep.

The beauty of fibre-optic communication is that it is virtually infinite. You can keep turning on new light wavelengths to increase capacity and, if all else fails, run a new cable.

The good news is that you don’t need to worry about what we will use all that data capacity for – we probably haven’t invented it yet.

John Harris is managing director of Impress Media Australia. Email jharris@impress.com.au

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