Common to all of these is the need to have reliable and cost effective Internet access, at a sufficient quality to all the desired interactions to take place seamlessly. In Internet terms, quality is characterized by the speed of the service, the amount of data that can be accessed within a given period and other technical parameters such as jitter and latency. These last factors are mainly a consideration for ‘real time’ services such as voice and video calling, and where milliseconds make a difference to the experience e.g. Nomadic services can be used within a known, set area.Fixed services are available only at a specific location constrained as a result of a physical wire or cable connection.Note that these concepts are used widely and generalized definitions are provided below:įixed, nomadic and mobile: This refers to the location or locations where the service is available: There are several concepts that first need to be defined and understood before progressing to make the right choice of broadband option/s for your business. Mobile services are generally available anywhere the service provider provides coverage.For example, a cordless phone can be used in most locations with a home, but does not work in the neighbouring property. Here we can consider our cellphone calls which are available in most places of the country. Users ‘roam’ from one area to another.įixed and wireless: From above, for fixed services, the communications signals travel over a cable or wire, confining the service to a location.

Wireless services transmit signals through the air. Note that there are hybrid services such as fixed-wireless that provide services to a fixed (set) location using wireless technology (no wires or cables between the locations). Moreover, many services involve a fixed connection to the network, and then distribution of the broadband service over wires (LAN = local area network) and/or wireless (WLAN = wireless LAN, using Wi-Fi).īroadband speed: The speed of a broadband connection determines how much information (data) is transmitted over a given period. Broadband speeds are measured in the unit of Mbps (Megabits per second). A voice call takes only a fraction of 1Mbps (so kilobits per second, or kbps), while a video call will consume a few Mbps.

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