What does Broadband Internet bring to our communities?
- Creates opportunities for our youth by giving them greater access to employment opportunities/entrepreneurship – from right here in our beautiful towns
- Provides solutions to key workforce challenges: distance learning, remote working
- Improves delivery and reduce costs of key services e.g., health care and education
- Helps retain local businesses and residents
- Provides jobs, attract new industry, create opportunities
- Improves property values – buyers increasingly expect internet connectivity
- Supports businesses that wish to trade 365
- Offers greater access to online entertainment/recreation
- And Much More!
Maine defines Broadband as 100/100Mbps!
Guides & How do I do that?
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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 Cell Phone Questions?
https://www.pbs.org/video/physics-behind-texting-pkie7g/ https://www.explainthatstuff.com/cellphones.html Stream TV - Get Local Stations
Do you watch Apple TV, Netflix or Hulu? You're already Streaming. In addition, you can stream traditional "TV" and have Local Channel Options as well to quit "Cable" or Satellite TV if you have it: How to Stream - watch this video Internet streaming services are available with some at no cost and news stations offer free access to live or time delayed news coverage. If you want to stream and get Local TV Stations (i.e., Bangor News, etc.) there are several options, though not all are the same or are listed here. Subscribers should research to ensure what you expect is available, do not pay for things you don't need (i.e., you do NOT need to use DirecTV's Gemini Device, subscribe to a higher cost package you do not need), and are comfortable with the service's web site interface. The following three options are listed in a specific order based on recent ratings only, with DirecTV being recently added to this list. There are others. NOTE: Fidium does NOT list HULU and others as one of their TV Partners and should NOT influence your choice! 1. Hulu+ Live TV https://www.hulu.com/welcome 2. YouTube TV https://tv.youtube.com/welcome/ 3. DirecTV Stream https://www.directv.com/ What does it Cost? About $65-$85+ tax, etc. Please check and compare. What does Satellite TV cost? About $75+ tax, etc. but with no local channels. What does Cable TV (Spectrum) cost (TV Only)? Who knows...! Web site is confusing. Help close the Digital Equity Gap
NATIONAL DIGITAL EQUITY CENTER "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 many of their classes. See: https://digitalequitycenter.org/classes/enroll/ to enroll and https://digitalequitycenter.org/classes/online-interactive/ for their classes. Privacy,Identity and Online Security
There are many things you can do to protect yourself and your information. From the Federal Trade Commission Financial Help - For those that qualify Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP): See Digital Equity. |
Benefits of FiberStreaming Devices Some devices that can help you stream but prices and capabilities vary - they are not all the same. NVIDIA Shield Apple TV Amazon Fire Roku Replace Landline Phone
VOIP: Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) = Internet based phone service. Here is a VOIP Primer. What does VOIP cost? - Varies, but Fidium is only $15 What does a copper landline phone service cost? - (CCI) about $20-50/mo +Taxes, etc. |
Key Terms
1. Internet is the Technology enabling people and things to transmit and receive data through email, over the Web and related systems.
Having access to the Internet does not mean you have Broadband.
2. Broadband is the Standard defined by the FCC for the Volume of data moved over the internet in one second - measured in Megabits per second (Mbps). That standard can change over time, but has been 25Mbps/3Mbps since 2015. Maine defines Broadband as 100Mbps/100Mbps.
3. Capacity is the Volume of data moved over the internet in one second, sometimes referred to as bandwidth and often confused with speed. Capacity is critical when a needed volume of information is delayed and the time to perform a task is impacted, such as for photo/video files, video games, video calls (ZOOM), streaming TV, large documents, and computer system updates. Multiple users compound the impacts.
4. Latency is the Time Measurement in milliseconds (ms) or "Ping" time. That reaction time identifies the time it takes for a small data set to be transmitted to a server and back to your device again. Fiber is below 20ms, satellites generally 50-150ms and coaxial cable systems somewhere in between. Latency is critical when transmission time delays reflected in poor system performance when reactions to the streaming of "TV," communication gaps, gaming reactions, medical device use delays, etc. are impacted.
5. Mb vs MB: Mega bit (Mb) is 1/8th of a Mega Byte (MB) – so 1 MB is 8 Mb.
6. Bandwidth: Bandwidth is a term interchangeable with “capacity”
7. Medium: Medium is environment that is used to carry the signals used to support the Internet
9. Download: The receipt of information over the Internet to your “device” (i.e. download from the web) saving that information on your computer.
10. Upload: Download is how the world talks to us and Upload is how we talk to the world.
Others:
1. Web: World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system
2. 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).
3. 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.
4. 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:
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. Ethernet: Ethernet is a family of wired computer networking technologies 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.
12. 5G: 5th Generation – a generational upgrade of broadband cellular network technology with defined capabilities
13. Open Access: An arrangement in which one network is open to independent service providers to offer services
14. Take Rate: A percentage of subscribing or estimated subscribing locations vs. the total number of possible subscribers to a service
1. Internet is the Technology enabling people and things to transmit and receive data through email, over the Web and related systems.
Having access to the Internet does not mean you have Broadband.
2. Broadband is the Standard defined by the FCC for the Volume of data moved over the internet in one second - measured in Megabits per second (Mbps). That standard can change over time, but has been 25Mbps/3Mbps since 2015. Maine defines Broadband as 100Mbps/100Mbps.
3. Capacity is the Volume of data moved over the internet in one second, sometimes referred to as bandwidth and often confused with speed. Capacity is critical when a needed volume of information is delayed and the time to perform a task is impacted, such as for photo/video files, video games, video calls (ZOOM), streaming TV, large documents, and computer system updates. Multiple users compound the impacts.
4. Latency is the Time Measurement in milliseconds (ms) or "Ping" time. That reaction time identifies the time it takes for a small data set to be transmitted to a server and back to your device again. Fiber is below 20ms, satellites generally 50-150ms and coaxial cable systems somewhere in between. Latency is critical when transmission time delays reflected in poor system performance when reactions to the streaming of "TV," communication gaps, gaming reactions, medical device use delays, etc. are impacted.
5. Mb vs MB: Mega bit (Mb) is 1/8th of a Mega Byte (MB) – so 1 MB is 8 Mb.
6. Bandwidth: Bandwidth is a term interchangeable with “capacity”
7. 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)
- Examples: Spectrum’s Cable TV, Consolidated Communication’s phones DSL Internet service and Dial-up! Yep, that still exists.
- Oldest of the mediums still used for Internet and phone - (Telegraph (1830’s) and Telephone (1870’s).
- 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.
9. Download: The receipt of information over the Internet to your “device” (i.e. download from the web) saving that information on your computer.
10. Upload: Download is how the world talks to us and Upload is how we talk to the world.
Others:
1. Web: World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system
2. 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).
3. 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.
4. 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
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. Ethernet: Ethernet is a family of wired computer networking technologies 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.
12. 5G: 5th Generation – a generational upgrade of broadband cellular network technology with defined capabilities
13. Open Access: An arrangement in which one network is open to independent service providers to offer services
14. Take Rate: A percentage of subscribing or estimated subscribing locations vs. the total number of possible subscribers to a service
For more information on XGS-PON, GPON & EPON, see http://www.tarluz.com/ftth/specification-differences-among-gpon-xg-pon-and-xgs-pon/