Introduction
This page provides some basic information in one place - things that may simplify/clarify key areas of the Broadband puzzle. Other information is readily available on the Internet. For more technical information or specific questions please contact your PUB Rep or myself at: bsmythe@bluehillme.gov
Changes are coming. How some have made phone calls in the past is changing too, with Voice over Internet (VOIP) to become more commonplace as fiber replaces copper for basic communications - with an inherently lower cost and better service.
What terms should you know (Top Four)?
Here are the four (4) most important terms related to the Internet you should be familiar with. Remember that nebulous terms like “fast” are subjective. A Corvette and a Model T are both “fast” when driving over a speed limit, but only one is fast when driving 190mph.
1. Internet is the technology that enables people or things to transmit and receive data over email, the www and other related systems. Having access to the Internet does not mean you have Broadband.
2. Broadband is a term now defined by the FCC and is a standard for fast internet that changes over time. Maine defines Broadband in the state as 100Mbps/100Mbps (download/upload). Broadband is NOT the Internet and it does not mean just “hi-speed” internet.
3. Capacity is a volume often confused with speed and is sometimes replaced by the term bandwidth. Speed is always measured as 1 second (s) (i.e. Mbps). The amount of data moved over the internet in 1 second is the Capacity of the internet connection i.e. 100Mbps/100Mbps.
Here are the four (4) most important terms related to the Internet you should be familiar with. Remember that nebulous terms like “fast” are subjective. A Corvette and a Model T are both “fast” when driving over a speed limit, but only one is fast when driving 190mph.
1. Internet is the technology that enables people or things to transmit and receive data over email, the www and other related systems. Having access to the Internet does not mean you have Broadband.
2. Broadband is a term now defined by the FCC and is a standard for fast internet that changes over time. Maine defines Broadband in the state as 100Mbps/100Mbps (download/upload). Broadband is NOT the Internet and it does not mean just “hi-speed” internet.
3. Capacity is a volume often confused with speed and is sometimes replaced by the term bandwidth. Speed is always measured as 1 second (s) (i.e. Mbps). The amount of data moved over the internet in 1 second is the Capacity of the internet connection i.e. 100Mbps/100Mbps.
- Capacity is critical when the volume of information transmitted is delayed and the overall time to perform a task is impacted such as with photo/video files and device use (i.e. video calls like Zoom), large documents, computer system updates, multiple users on a system.
- Latency is critical when transmission time delays are reflected in poor system performance for streaming of "TV," communications, gaming, medical device use, etc.
GUIDES (Links)
COMMUNITY NETWORKS FACT SHEETS
Other important fact & information sheets:
Fact Sheet - Broadband 101
Fact Sheet - Wireless 101
Fact Sheet - Satellite is Not Broadband
Fact Sheet - 5G Pocket Guide
Fact Sheet - Broadband as Infrastructure
Fact Sheet - The Opportunity of Municipal Broadband
Fiber to the Home (FTTH) Primer
COMMUNITY NETWORKS FACT SHEETS
Other important fact & information sheets:
Fact Sheet - Broadband 101
Fact Sheet - Wireless 101
Fact Sheet - Satellite is Not Broadband
Fact Sheet - 5G Pocket Guide
Fact Sheet - Broadband as Infrastructure
Fact Sheet - The Opportunity of Municipal Broadband
Fiber to the Home (FTTH) Primer
And for your Cell Phone too!
https://www.pbs.org/video/physics-behind-texting-pkie7g/
https://www.explainthatstuff.com/cellphones.html
https://www.pbs.org/video/physics-behind-texting-pkie7g/
https://www.explainthatstuff.com/cellphones.html
How Do I Do That you ask?
Stream TV, receive Local Stations, replace your landline, protect yourself.... The following are a couple of helpful links to sites or videos that tell you how to do it. How to protect yourself, even on your phone, makes this worth of a quick look.
There's a ton more stuff you can find on the Web. Remember, if you have Fiber internet, you will not have to worry about your speed (i.e. capacity or bandwidth). You'll have plenty of it with Fidium Fiber.
Up to 1,000Mbps/1,000Mbps (1 Gig) Upload & Download. 4k, 8k and higher TV for streaming, backup your computer to the cloud in minutes, no more terrible cell phone coverage - connect to the WIFI!
Please Note: Even if you don't think you use the Internet (Web Sites and Email), your Home Phone can be shifted to an internet based service - No Charge... more to come.
TV
Stream TV (Quit "Cable"): How to Stream - watch this video
Streaming "TV" Options: There are many Internet TV services available, some at no cost, but only two (as of 3/5/22) that provide Streaming of TV with Local Stations:
1. YouTube TV https://tv.youtube.com/welcome/
2. Hulu + Live TV https://www.hulu.com/welcome
What does it Cost? - About $65-$75+ tax, etc. but varies so please see the sites and compare. Price reflects upcoming cost increase.
What does Satellite TV cost? - About $75+ tax, etc. but no local channels
What does Cable TV cost (TV Only) - Who knows! It's not clear anywhere what the bill will be after a year! And you need to pay for the cable too...
HOME PHONE
VOIP: Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) = internet based phone service. Here is a VOIP Primer.
What does VOIP cost? - Varies, but $15-20/mo+ Taxes, etc.
What does a copper landline phone cost? - (CCI) about $20/mo +Taxes, etc.
DEVICES
Devices that can help you stream. Prices and capabilities vary, so please compare apples to apples.
Apple TV
Amazon Fire
Roku
NATIONAL DIGITAL EQUITY CENTER
Helping to close the Digital Equity gap - Right here in Maine.
"Watch our Maine Digital Inclusion Initiative Whiteboard Video"- NDEC
To participate in the NDEC digital literacy program, you need to enroll online by you or with assistance from another with internet access. It is free to enroll and free to take classes and of their many classes.
The link is here: https://digitalequitycenter.org/classes/enroll/Once registered, you can sign up for online classes here: https://digitalequitycenter.org/classes/online-interactive/
PRIVACY, IDENTITY and ONLINE SECURITY
There are many things you can do to protect yourself and your information
From the Federal Trade Commission
FEDERAL HELP - For those that qualify
Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP): www.fcc.gov/acp
If you know someone that might qualify please provide then with the handout below.tv.youtube.com/welcome/
Stream TV, receive Local Stations, replace your landline, protect yourself.... The following are a couple of helpful links to sites or videos that tell you how to do it. How to protect yourself, even on your phone, makes this worth of a quick look.
There's a ton more stuff you can find on the Web. Remember, if you have Fiber internet, you will not have to worry about your speed (i.e. capacity or bandwidth). You'll have plenty of it with Fidium Fiber.
Up to 1,000Mbps/1,000Mbps (1 Gig) Upload & Download. 4k, 8k and higher TV for streaming, backup your computer to the cloud in minutes, no more terrible cell phone coverage - connect to the WIFI!
Please Note: Even if you don't think you use the Internet (Web Sites and Email), your Home Phone can be shifted to an internet based service - No Charge... more to come.
TV
Stream TV (Quit "Cable"): How to Stream - watch this video
Streaming "TV" Options: There are many Internet TV services available, some at no cost, but only two (as of 3/5/22) that provide Streaming of TV with Local Stations:
1. YouTube TV https://tv.youtube.com/welcome/
2. Hulu + Live TV https://www.hulu.com/welcome
What does it Cost? - About $65-$75+ tax, etc. but varies so please see the sites and compare. Price reflects upcoming cost increase.
What does Satellite TV cost? - About $75+ tax, etc. but no local channels
What does Cable TV cost (TV Only) - Who knows! It's not clear anywhere what the bill will be after a year! And you need to pay for the cable too...
HOME PHONE
VOIP: Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) = internet based phone service. Here is a VOIP Primer.
What does VOIP cost? - Varies, but $15-20/mo+ Taxes, etc.
What does a copper landline phone cost? - (CCI) about $20/mo +Taxes, etc.
DEVICES
Devices that can help you stream. Prices and capabilities vary, so please compare apples to apples.
Apple TV
Amazon Fire
Roku
NATIONAL DIGITAL EQUITY CENTER
Helping to close the Digital Equity gap - Right here in Maine.
"Watch our Maine Digital Inclusion Initiative Whiteboard Video"- NDEC
To participate in the NDEC digital literacy program, you need to enroll online by you or with assistance from another with internet access. It is free to enroll and free to take classes and of their many classes.
The link is here: https://digitalequitycenter.org/classes/enroll/Once registered, you can sign up for online classes here: https://digitalequitycenter.org/classes/online-interactive/
PRIVACY, IDENTITY and ONLINE SECURITY
There are many things you can do to protect yourself and your information
From the Federal Trade Commission
FEDERAL HELP - For those that qualify
Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP): www.fcc.gov/acp
If you know someone that might qualify please provide then with the handout below.tv.youtube.com/welcome/
| Affordable Connectivity Program.docx |
The PUB does NOT endorse any products noted or referenced in the videos or sites provided above. They are readily available on the internet and are provided to help introduce options and opportunities.
Broadband – Or do you mean the Internet? (They are not the same)
The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) was created by federal statute to regulate interstate communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable. The ConnectMaine Authority facilitates universal availability of broadband service and to increase the “take rate” or adoption to equal or greater than the national average. The Key Words you should be keenly aware of are numbered below with others listed below that. The specific key words are amplified for further clarification.
8. Upload: The passing of information from your “device” to another computer, network, Web site, mobile device, or some other remotely connected networked location.
Download is how the world talks to us and Upload is how we talk to the world. With that in mind – why would anyone use a service that is not symmetrical if they had a choice?
Others:
Web: World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system
Capacity: How much information a connection can transfer, or how much information it does transfer at any given time – generally defined in Megabits per second (Mbps).
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL): DSL is an Internet “medium” that uses the same wires as regular telephone lines, using special equipment provided for the purpose. Not all phone lines have DSL. Phone lines are the medium forming the major limitations (age, size and resistance).
WIFI: Wi-Fi or WiFi is a technology for wireless local area networking (LAN) with devices based on the IEEE 802.11 standards. Range is typically very short. Within a house… approx. 50 feet.
Wireless: Wireless communication, or sometimes simply wireless, is the transfer of information or power between two or more points that are not connected by an electrical conductor. The most common wireless technologies use radio waves. With radio waves distances can be short, such as a few meters for Bluetooth or as far as millions of miles such as in deep space radio communications.
Some Types of wireless include:
Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP): A methodology and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks.
Fiber (Fiber Optics): Fiber Internet uses light as the medium for the transmission of information and has virtually no distance limits. Thin glass fibers are bound inside a larger protective cable.
EPON: Ethernet passive optical network. EPON uses Ethernet packets instead of ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) cells. EPON also uses Internet Protocol (IP) to carry data, voice, and video data. It generally delivers 1G symmetrical bandwidth.
GPON: GPON stands for Gigabit Passive Optical Networks. GPON is a point-to-multipoint access mechanism. Its main characteristic is the use of passive splitters in the fiber distribution network, enabling one single feeding fiber from the provider’s central office to serve multiple homes and small businesses.
XG(S)-PON: XG(S)-PON is evolved from the existing GPON technology, the XG-PON is with the bandwidth of 10G for downstream and 2.5G for upstream, XGS-PON with the bandwidth of 10G for downstream and 10G for upstream. XGS-PON is a higher bandwidth, symmetric version of GPON. Again, the same capabilities of GPON and can co-exist on the same fiber with GPON.
Ethernet: Ethernet is a family of wired computer networking tgechnologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). ... Systems communicating over Ethernet divide a stream of data into shorter pieces called frames.
5G: 5th Generation – a generational upgrade of broadband cellular network technology with defined capabilities
Open Access: An arrangement in which one network is open to independent service providers to offer services
Take Rate: A percentage of subscribing or estimated subscribing locations vs. the total number of possible subscribers to a service
The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) was created by federal statute to regulate interstate communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable. The ConnectMaine Authority facilitates universal availability of broadband service and to increase the “take rate” or adoption to equal or greater than the national average. The Key Words you should be keenly aware of are numbered below with others listed below that. The specific key words are amplified for further clarification.
- Broadband: Broadband today (11/24/2021) is defined by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as 25 Mbps download/3 Mbps Upload. Mega bits per second = Mbps. It is 100/100 in Maine and will hopefully change soon federally - which is good for the consumer.
- If you don’t have that you do NOT have Broadband.
- Broadband is a capacity (speed/bandwidth) not a technology like the Internet.
- High-Speed: (It’s a misleading term). “Speed” in the Internet world is always based on 1 second. It is associated with the specific amount of data (i.e. capacity in Megabits) transmitted in One Second.
- In one second, an amount of data (the capacity/bandwidth) is moved over the internet medium (cable, fiber, or air) and is measured in Mega bits (Mb) – Not Mega Bytes (MB).
- Mb vs MB: Mega bit (Mb) is 1/8th of a Mega Byte (MB) – so 1 MB is 8 Mb.
- Bandwidth – Bandwidth is a term some use instead of “capacity” or “speed.” It is also used to signify the lower and upper frequency range assigned for a given system (i.e. 2,000 to 3,000 megahertz). The term capacity is more common.
- Medium: Medium is environment that is used to carry the signals used to support the Internet.
- Copper – Phone lines & Cable TV (CATV) (i.e. coaxial cable)
- Oldest of the mediums still used for Internet and phone - (Telegraph (1830’s) and Telephone (1870’s).
- Examples: Spectrum’s Cable TV, Consolidated Communication’s phones DSL Internet service and Dial-up! Yep, that still exists.
- Glass – Fiber Optics
- The highest capacity medium able to move data the longest terrestrial distances (land or under water)
- Most trans-oceanic Internet communication moves over undersea fiber cables. Some is via Satellite.
- The highest capacity medium able to move data the longest terrestrial distances (land or under water)
- Air – Cellular, Wireless, WIFI & Satellite
- Growing uses, from cellular phones, in-home communications to driverless transportation – but ALL use fiber-based systems.
- Example: A cellular phone communication goes to a tower and is generally passed from the tower’s cellular components to fiber optic cable which then routes the communication through various systems to a tower closest to your intended party – all at the “speed of light.”
- Growing uses, from cellular phones, in-home communications to driverless transportation – but ALL use fiber-based systems.
- Hybrid Fiber-Coaxial (HFC) Cable
- HFC has been used by the cable industry since the 90’s. It has components made up of fiber but with none of the direct benefits to the consumer. If you have cable you do not have fiber to the home! See the article above for more on HFC.
- Copper – Phone lines & Cable TV (CATV) (i.e. coaxial cable)
- Symmetrical Service: Symmetrical service is an equal capacity for both download and upload. Some mediums and their systems have physical limitations or they are limited by the ISP. Though there are no physical limits for symmetrical service from a fiber ISP provider, some will intentionally limit the service.
8. Upload: The passing of information from your “device” to another computer, network, Web site, mobile device, or some other remotely connected networked location.
Download is how the world talks to us and Upload is how we talk to the world. With that in mind – why would anyone use a service that is not symmetrical if they had a choice?
Others:
Web: World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system
Capacity: How much information a connection can transfer, or how much information it does transfer at any given time – generally defined in Megabits per second (Mbps).
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL): DSL is an Internet “medium” that uses the same wires as regular telephone lines, using special equipment provided for the purpose. Not all phone lines have DSL. Phone lines are the medium forming the major limitations (age, size and resistance).
WIFI: Wi-Fi or WiFi is a technology for wireless local area networking (LAN) with devices based on the IEEE 802.11 standards. Range is typically very short. Within a house… approx. 50 feet.
Wireless: Wireless communication, or sometimes simply wireless, is the transfer of information or power between two or more points that are not connected by an electrical conductor. The most common wireless technologies use radio waves. With radio waves distances can be short, such as a few meters for Bluetooth or as far as millions of miles such as in deep space radio communications.
Some Types of wireless include:
- Satellite
- Infrared
- Broadcast Radio
- Radio
- Microwave
- Wi-Fi
- Mobile Systems
Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP): A methodology and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks.
Fiber (Fiber Optics): Fiber Internet uses light as the medium for the transmission of information and has virtually no distance limits. Thin glass fibers are bound inside a larger protective cable.
EPON: Ethernet passive optical network. EPON uses Ethernet packets instead of ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) cells. EPON also uses Internet Protocol (IP) to carry data, voice, and video data. It generally delivers 1G symmetrical bandwidth.
GPON: GPON stands for Gigabit Passive Optical Networks. GPON is a point-to-multipoint access mechanism. Its main characteristic is the use of passive splitters in the fiber distribution network, enabling one single feeding fiber from the provider’s central office to serve multiple homes and small businesses.
XG(S)-PON: XG(S)-PON is evolved from the existing GPON technology, the XG-PON is with the bandwidth of 10G for downstream and 2.5G for upstream, XGS-PON with the bandwidth of 10G for downstream and 10G for upstream. XGS-PON is a higher bandwidth, symmetric version of GPON. Again, the same capabilities of GPON and can co-exist on the same fiber with GPON.
Ethernet: Ethernet is a family of wired computer networking tgechnologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). ... Systems communicating over Ethernet divide a stream of data into shorter pieces called frames.
5G: 5th Generation – a generational upgrade of broadband cellular network technology with defined capabilities
Open Access: An arrangement in which one network is open to independent service providers to offer services
Take Rate: A percentage of subscribing or estimated subscribing locations vs. the total number of possible subscribers to a service
More technical information on XGS-PON, GPON and EPON - see http://www.tarluz.com/ftth/specification-differences-among-gpon-xg-pon-and-xgs-pon/
There is more out there on the internet....
An example is the attached "FTTH..." doc that describes and evaluates Hybrid Fiber Coaxial (HFC) used by companies like Spectrum for Coaxial Cable to the Premise.
The Mediums below are ranked by their Broadband performance and expandability for Home/Business use for Internet access. It excludes Cellular Phones (and Hotspots). Most are area providers on all or parts of the Blue Hill Peninsula area.
a. Fiber (CCI and others)
b. Cable (Spectrum)
c. Satellite (Hughesnet, Viasat, Starlink) - Starlink's ranking may shift above cable once fully deployed.
d. Wireless (Redzone Wireless)
e. DSL (CCI)
f. WIFI (ISP service, not in-home WIFI) (Premium Choice and others)
g. Dialup (Earthlink and others)
Remember, all of these depend on Fiber to work.
An example is the attached "FTTH..." doc that describes and evaluates Hybrid Fiber Coaxial (HFC) used by companies like Spectrum for Coaxial Cable to the Premise.
The Mediums below are ranked by their Broadband performance and expandability for Home/Business use for Internet access. It excludes Cellular Phones (and Hotspots). Most are area providers on all or parts of the Blue Hill Peninsula area.
a. Fiber (CCI and others)
b. Cable (Spectrum)
c. Satellite (Hughesnet, Viasat, Starlink) - Starlink's ranking may shift above cable once fully deployed.
d. Wireless (Redzone Wireless)
e. DSL (CCI)
f. WIFI (ISP service, not in-home WIFI) (Premium Choice and others)
g. Dialup (Earthlink and others)
Remember, all of these depend on Fiber to work.