Broadband v. baseband ... again?

Thu Jul 5 18:00:52 UTC 2001

At the risk of incurring the wrath of Mr. Meyer by posting without 
permission, I offer the following: Harry Newton, of "Newton's TELECOM 
Dictionary - The Official Dictionary of Telecommunications & the Interent" 
(Updated 15th Expanded Edition), defines "Broadband" (in the WAN context) 
as anything over 45Mbps (T3).

The language we use in our industry is evolving at an extremely rapid 
rate.  The great unwashed masses don't necessarily stick with the time 
honored definitions we would prefer that they admire, respect, and accept 
as gospel.  Get over it!

    - Tom

  At 10:28 AM 7/5/2001 -0700, Roeland Meyer wrote:

>Broadband isn't a speed, it's a signaling architecture. The alternative is
>baseband. Ethernet is baseband. Broadcast radio is broadband. Now that you
>have the two competing terms, please see your friendly neighborhood search
>engine (PSYFNSE).
>
>BTW, silence is a poor excuse for posting a message.
>
>--
>From: Larry Diffey [mailto:ldiffey at technologyforward.com]
>Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2001 10:13 AM
>
>Since it's so quiet in here, I want to stir things up a little with an
>informal survey.
>
>With all of this talk about broadband (mostly in reference to cable modems
>and xDSL), consumers have been tricked into actually believing that if it's
>faster than a modem then it's broadband.
>
>I have a number in my head as to what I consider broadband.  It's not an
>unreasonable number but it certainly does exceed what is available to the
>average consumer.
>
>Oh wise nanogers, what speeds do we need to achieve for the average consumer
>before we truly have broadband?
>
>I will try and keep track of all the numbers that you give you an average
>and I'll also give you the number I had in mind.