What Is Broadband?

In the past two decades, the accessibility of Internet connection worldwide along with the gradual deployment and acceptance of broadband connections to Internet has very much affected and improved the user’s experience when using the Internet. Broadband is a one of telecommunication that use wide band of frequencies that can use to send and transmit information. According to Andrew (2010), “Broadband is the name given to any fast, permanent internet connection”. Nowadays, the broadband technology becomes one of the important things in daily life. The need of the broadband technology increase year by year. Broadband technology which offers high speed transmission of voice, video and data over networks and ICT utilities has make it possible

The terms wireless broadband is defined by Margaret (n.d.) as “high-speed Internet and data service delivered through a wireless local area network (WLAN) or wide area network (WWAN)”. In Malaysia, there are three types of wireless broadband technology which are GPRS, UMTS/HSPA, and LTE. These three technologies will be discussed further. GPRS or General Packet Radio Services “is a packet data overlay onto existing GSM networks” (Srinath,N.,2011 as cited in A.K. Aini Zuriyati, O. Zainuddin, M.Muriati,2014 ). It will send and receive data over mobile telephone network and to any destination on internet when connected to computer. The key benefits of GPRS are speed, connectivity and applications. GPRS provides higher data rate than GSM (Global System for Mobile communications). It can achieve until 172kbps but usually the speed can only reach up to 15-40kbs under most conditions. GPRS is based on packet switched technology. Unlike modems used in circuit switched network that is dial-up, GPRS does not require dial-up so it is always- on service. This makes it easier for people who wants to check on their email automatically and it makes service immediately available to device thus ensure connectivity. GPRS also provides full internet applications and services to devices because of its high speed internet and always-on service. UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) exploits CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) radio-access technology. It is not a substitute for GSM network rather a rectification of GSM. LTE (Long Term Evolution) is a “very good, easily deployable network technology, offering high speeds and low latencies over long distances.” (Neal, 2015). It offers a faster upload and downloads speed to user, much faster as compared to GPRS or