Delivery of dedicated bandwidth services to meet business data network requirements is evolving at breakneck speed (no pun intended). But that doesn’t mean your options are limited. In fact….it really creates more opportunity to be creative.

Case in point is set up of DS3 connectivity for local loops.

According to my knowledge nowdays most of the DS3 drops are connected by fiber. But is that description entirely accurate?

DS3 hand-off is always done as copper. However, I’ve never heard of any LEC stringing coax DS3 cables across telephone poles; the coax DS3 is used within the building where the hand-off takes place.

The emerging standard 802.16 defines a network of wireless broadband at speeds capable of delivering triple play access to voice, data, and multimedia internet services. As a disruptive technology, WiMAX stands to compete with cable companies, the Telco’s, and the 3G cellular networks. Thanks to the IEEE standards committee and the WiMAX Forum, the fledgling technology that got serious in 2004 is now being deployed in regions around the world.

For most of the British public, the internet began in the 1990’s where it was estimated that the internet grew by 100% per year. It was in the year 2000 when the UK was first introduced to broadband, although the majority of broadband users came from large companies, due to the high cost, the situation now is very different as consumers can buy broadband for as little as £10 per month.

The difference between broadband and dialup is very small in price but broadband speeds can be significantly faster. This will gradually force dialup connections to extinction. According to BT, broadband is now available in 99.6% of households in the UK, 65% of UK households have an internet connection, and of those with internet, 55% are broadband connections.

Broadband technology has improved so much over the last few years that we couldn’t imagine a world without it anymore. This improvement has been seen most notably in the Eastern World where the technology is unmatched. These are the top three broadband cities in the world.

1. Seoul, South Korea

The Capital City of South Korea is home to 10 million people and claims top spot for highest broadband penetration with an impressive 83%. Seoul offers 10Mbit/s broadband connections averaging at £10 per month and some areas offer 100Mbit/s broadband from as little as £15 per month.

The emerging IEEE 802.16 standard, commonly known as WiMAX, promises to deliver last mile wireless broadband internet access capable of carrying data intensive applications, such as VoIP and streaming video, to Metropolitan Area Networks, as well as sub-urban and rural communities. WiMAX is considered a disruptive technology, designed as an alternative to fixed line DSL and coaxial technologies, and with its 802.16e revision, the cell phone networks as well.

According to a survey carried out across Europe, broadband usage has seen a rise of around 12% from statistics from 2006. The survey asked 150,000 households across Europe - with the exception of Malta - about their broadband habits. The survey showed that in the first three months of 2007, 54% of households had access to an internet connection, a rise from around 49% in 2006.

Results from the survey showed that around 42% of households in the EU now have access to a broadband connection. Percentages for households with access to the internet varied from country to country - from 19% in Bulgaria to 83% in the Netherlands.

There has been a lot written about the speed of broadband connections, but for most users it takes a back seat to just getting the work done. With the debate on whether there is a justified need for money to be spent on high-speed fibre networks still raging, is it really all about connection speed?

According to a recent survey, some 21 million Brits (or around 63% of those online) visited sites related to multimedia - including TV, movie and video sites - and services such as YouTube and BBC iPlayer have seen increases in visitors as internet habits change constantly.

In a recent PC Magazine article, writer Jeremy Kaplan did a fantastic job of exposing the true Internet access speeds of the large consumer providers.

He did this by creating a speed test that measured the throughput of continuous access to popular Web sites like Google, Expedia, and many others. Until this report was published, the common metric for comparing ISPs was through the use of the numerous Internet speed test sites available online.

The problem with this validation method was that it could not simulate real speeds encountered when doing typical Web surfing and downloading operations. Plus, ISPs can tamper with the results of speed tests — more on this later.

Wireless networking is now common place, with many ISP’s providing a cheap broadband that include a wireless hub as standard. Wireless broadband users enjoy the freedom of being able to surf the internet from any location in their house, from lounging on the sofa to the extreme of ’surfing’ on the lavatory (handy if you can’t pull yourself away from an online poker tournament!)

Wi-fi can be set up in minutes and it has proved a household luxury that many would not choose to be without.

Introduction: Over the last few years we have seen internet technology improving at a dramatic pace, from the introduction of broadband to the success of wireless connections. People now have the ability to discover new worlds from the comfort of their own living room. As broadband speeds have got faster, we have seen the introduction of 3D virtual worlds. All that is needed is; a computer, broadband and your imagination will take care of the rest.