High-Speed Internet Access Subscribers Soared

The number of high-speed Internet connections in the United States jumped 158 percent last year, with 7.1 million lines reaching homes and businesses, the Federal Communications Commission recently stated.

The biggest jump came in asymmetric digital subscriber line (DSL) service, in which the download speed is faster than the uplink, which soared 435 percent to 2 million lines. Meanwhile, 3.6 million lines offering high-speed Internet service were over coaxial cable systems last year, a 153 percent increase over 1999, according to the FCC report.

Approximately 5.2 million lines were to residential and small businesses. About 4.3 million of the total high-speed lines provided two-way 200-plus kilobits per second service, up 118 percent for the year, the report said. Additionally, the provision of high-speed access via satellite and fixed-wireless technology, while nascent, more than doubled to 112,000 lines last year from 50,000 the prior year. There were subscribers in 75 percent of the nation's zip codes last year, up from 56 percent at the end of 1999, according to the FCC.

What does this all mean? High-speed internet access is more affordable these days! It used to be that hugely expensive T1 or ISDN lines were your only options. Now, a DSL line for your office is almost a no-brainer. Let's say you have 8 employees all using dial-up access. At $18 per line per month, you would be shelling out a hefty $144 for outdated technology. For the same money, your office can share one DSL line at 10 to 100 times the speed of a dial-up line. Imagine the time savings alone!

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