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Types of Internet Service

Carrier Technology	Description	Speed*	Physical Medium	Comments
Dial-up Access	On demand access using a modem and regular telephone line.	2400 bps to 56 Kbps	Twisted pair (regular phone lines)	Available throughout most of province. Cheap but slow compared with other technologies. Speed may degrade due to the amount of line noise.
ISDN	Dedicated telephone line and router required.	64 Kbps to 128 Kbps	Twisted pair	Not available throughout province but becoming more widespread. An ISDN line costs slightly more than a regular telephone line.
Cable	Special cable modem and cable line required.	512 Kbps to 10 Mbps	Coaxial cable; in some cases telephone lines used for upstream requests.	Must have existing cable access in area. Cost of bring service into an area and trenching cable can be prohibitive. Networkable
ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line	This technology uses the unused digital portion of a regular copper telephone line (i.e. your fax line) to transmit and receive information. ADSL is asymmetric since it receives at 6 to 9 Mbps per second but can only send data at between 16 to 640 Kbps. A special modem and adapter card are required.	512 Kbps to 9 Mbps	Twisted pair (used as a digital, broadband medium)	Doesn’t interfere with normal telephone use. Bandwidth is dedicated not shared like with cable. Bandwidth is affected by the distance from the network hubs. Must be within 5 km (3.1 miles) of telephone company switch. Bandwidth affected by line quality Limited availability across Ontario.
Wireless (LMCS)	Access is gained by connection to a high speed cellular like local multi-point communications system (LMCS) network via wireless transmitter/receiver.	2 Mbps or more	Airwaves Requires outside antenna, modem inside.	In theory it's capable of super speeds of 10 mbps or more. Can be used for high speed data, broadcast TV and wireless telephone service. A line-of sight survey may be required (to test quality of signal)
Satellite	The computer sends request for information to an ISP via normal phone dial-up communications and data is returned via high speed satellite to rooftop dish, which relays it to the computer via a decoder box.	400 Kbps	Airwaves Requires outside antenna.	Bandwidth is not shared. Satellite companies are set to join the fray soon which could lead to integrated TV and Internet service using the same equipment and WebTV like integrated services Service is one way with a slow uplink speed. Requires an Internet service account. Phone line is busy while online. Often more expensive than ADSL or cable
Frame Relay	Provides a type of "party line" connection to the Internet. Requires a FRAD (Frame Relay Access Device) similar to a modem, or a DSU/CSU.	56 Kbps to 1.544 Mbps	Various	May cost less than ISDN in some locations. Limited availability across Ontario.
Fractional T1 (Flexible DS1)	Only a portion of the 23 channels available in a T1 line is actually used.	64 Kbps to 1.544 Mbps	Twisted-pair or coaxial cable	Cheaper than a full T1 line with growth options of 56 Kbps or 64 Kbps increments as required.
T1	Special lines and equipment (DSU/CSU and router) required.	1.544 Mbps	Twisted-pair, coaxial cable, or optical fiber	Typically used for high bandwidth demands such as videoconferencing and heavy graphic file transfers. Many large businesses and ISP use T1. Expensive
T3	Typically used for ISP to Internet infrastructure.	44.736 Mbps	Optical fiber	Very large bandwidth Extremely expensive and complex
OC-1	Typically used for ISP to Internet infrastructure within Internet infrastructure.	51.84 Mbps	Optical fiber
OC-3	Typically used for large company backbone or Internet backbone.	155.52 Mbps	Optical fiber

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