Thanks to lower prices and increased availability, broadband (high speed) Internet is starting to over take dial-up services in the United States. Dial-up Internet served us well for the first 10 years of the Internet, but to really take advantage of the Internet today, a broadband connection is a must.
Here are 10 things that you can do with a high speed connection today that you can’t do (as easily) with a dial-up service:
- Keep up to date with Windows and Internet security updates automatically
- Google Earth
- Download music (legally) at sites like Napster, iTunes, and Rhapsody
- Receive and make phone calls while on the Internet…without an extra line!
- Watch online news or information videos or listen to online music or news casts without waiting and without the choppiness and stuttering of a dial-up connection
- I know many people don’t think that speed matters…but with broadband, the Internet becomes much more of a resource tool than a novelty.
- Upload pictures to printing services to either be picked up or mailed to you.
- Watch movie trailers
- Save time…you can do four times as much research or work with a broadband connection in half the time.
- Make free or extremely inexpensive phone calls and video phone calls.
Admittedly, many of these functions can be carried out with a dial-up connection, but studies and my experience have shown that people don’t do these things. The reason? Time. For example, a broadband user can download a song in under 3 minutes. The same song takes nearly 25 minutes with a dial-up connection. Services like Google Earth can take up to 10 or more minutes to start with dial-up.
And most importantly of all, keeping up-to-date with security updates and maintenance can take hours with a dial-up connection versus less than 10 or so minutes with broadband. And usually the updates are much quicker than that.
Broadband doesn’t have to bust your budget either. In fact, if you happen to have an extra phone line dedicated to your computer, you will actually SAVE money by switching to a high speed connection. Remember that the Juno High Speed, AOL Top Speed, and other accelerator services on a dial-up connection are just gimmicks and are NOT worth the extra $3-6 per month providers charge for this gimmick.
