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Before and After: Broadband vs. Dial-up

Posted by jonathan at 1:31pm EST on 08/04/2007

Many of us remember the days of dial-up Internet. Connecting at 14.4k, 28.8k, then 56k. Even some of you remember the days of 9600 baud or even before that, but that’s before my time — I started on the 28.8k modems; good ole’ AOL.

Let’s fast forward 15 years to today, where we have DSL, cable, ISDN fiber optic, and wireless everywhere. Dial-up is not a reliable method of Internet anymore. More and more Internet Services Providers are dis-continuing their dial-up products and services because it’s just not realistic to keep offering those slower services that fewer and fewer people are using.

Downloading this file last night on my Macbook Pro over the wireless N connection, it really dawned on me. Internet is not and never will be what it used to be. Information is more accessible at even faster rates than ever before. Files are larger, speeds are faster, more storage capacity is available, and the computer industry is growing even faster than ever imagined.

Verizon came out with their fiber optic service dubbed FiOS not too long ago, but they are still rapidly expanding. Looking at their prices today, you can get a 15mbit connection for $49.99/mo. That is cheap! It used to be, even just four years ago, that you couldn’t get anything faster than two or three megabit for that cheap.

I love how technology has changed our world to become more accessible, easier to use, and more efficient for everyone. Yes, there still are quite a few people out there that are slow to pickup on the changes, but there are other people who take it by the horns and run with it. Those people are creating the next Web 2.0 for the world.

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