High-speed classifications

[stoid]

I think that it's time that the term high-speed internet should be broken down into more specific classifications. Right now, anything that is not dial-up (DSL/Cable/Satellite) is called high-speed internet. So far that's been sufficient as anything but dial-up was leagues ahead in speed. Now as the faster speeds (3-5 Mbps) are going consumer, there needs to be a new term. Just saying, "Yeah, I've got high-speed internet" it not too descriptive when online gaming and video streaming can sometimes require that you have 512K-1M internet, and the base-line 128/256K connections just don't cut it anymore.

What could be done to remedy this situation? Should there be 'classes' of high-speed? New term like "massive-speed" (This might not work since it will keep getting faster, and you'd run out of descriptors)? Like monitor resolutions (VGA, EGA, XGA, etc.)? Or will it sort itself out as providers start to drop the slower connects so that the entry level is 512K or 1M?

 

[Bear]

It's going to take a while to sort out. Fortunately, dialup speeds seem to have stabilized so we don't have to worry about classifying dialup speeds.

As for DSL, the speeds ranged from 512Kb/96Kb (upload/download) to 7M/1.5Mb depending on how far you are from the central office. And of course there's always the risk of throttling.

And for cable modems, the speed ranges seems to be 2Mb/256Kb up to about 7Mb/512Kb and of course there's throttling by some cable providers.

And add to the mix Verizon FIOS which is fiber to the premisses and speeds from 5Mn/sec to 30Mb download with 2MB/sec upload speed. Another whole new category.

It is going to get worse before it gets better. Also, you have to worry about propagation delay if someone is using a sattelite based net connection.

good luck in getting a set of terminology and even better luck in having people know what their speed is anyway.