The following table offers a 'ROUGH' comparison of Internet connection speeds and technologies. It is aimed at providing an 'order-of-magnitude' comparison, rather than precisely accurate speeds for each technology. One important value of the table is to help explain the difference between a wireless local area network or wireless cellular, and wired Ethernet connections. It's quickly clear that they offer a progression of increasing speeds where, if it's available, WIRED IS BEST!
Connection Megabytes Kilobytes
Type per second per second
================ ============ ============================
14.4 modem 14.4 KB/s
28.8 modem 28.8 KB/s
V.92 Modem 56.0 KB/s
ISDN 128 KB/s
Wireless Cellular 100 KB/s (to 500 KB/s)
Wireless local area network 130 KB/s (to 300 KB/s)
Satellite 400 KB/s (to 6 MB/s)
Broadband over power 500 KB/s (to 3 MB/s)
(Using power lines in the wall)
ADSL 256 KB/s (to 8 MB/s)
Business ADSL 512 KB/s
DSL/T1 1.5 MB/s or 1,544 KB/s
Cable Modem 4.0 MB/s or 4,000 KB/s (to 6 MB/s or more)
T2 6.3 MB/s or 6,312 KB/s
Ethernet (*1) 10.0 MB/s or 10,000 KB/s
T3 44.7 MB/s or 44,736 KB/s
OC1 51.8 MB/s or 51,840 KB/s
Fast Ethernet (*2) 100.0 MB/s or 100,000 KB/s
OC3 155.5 MB/s or 155,520 KB/s
T4 274.0 MB/s or 274,000 KB/s
Gigabit
Ethernet (*3) 1,000.0 MB/s or 1,000,000 KB/s
SDSL 1,544.0 MB/s or 1,544,000 KB/s
(*1) 10Base-T Ethernet over Cat 3 or Cat 5 cabling was the original standard for most local area networks in the early 1990's
(*2) 100Base-T Fast Ethernet over Cat 5 cabling is the current standard for most local area networks starting in the mid 1990's and continuing to today
(*3) 1000Base-T Gigabyte Ethernet over Cat 5 or Cat 5e cabling is the still emerging standard
The above notes on Ethernet and related cabling are intended to provide a high-level understanding of popular 'wired' technologies for local area networks and how they 'fit' into the hierarchy of Internet speed comparisons. It's important to remember that all Internet speeds are limited by the slowest component. It's quite typical for a business to have a 100Base-T local area network (LAN) with a 10Base-T Internet connection to DSL or even a T1. This means that the maximum speed for Internet access on the LAN is first limited by the speed of the box that delivers the service (Again maybe 10 MB/s) and then further limited by the actual speed of the service (e.g. 4.0 MB/s or less for Cable, DSL, T1, etc. according to the above chart)
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