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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