Broadband Access: Wireline and Wireless - Alternatives for Internet Services

18Conclusions Regarding Broadband Access Networks and Technologies

Residential broadband access has rapidly become an important and integral part of the culture in much of the world. For many people, it has become virtually as essential as power and water services.

The key reasons for this broadband access explosion include the growing number of applications, the incredible volume of content available through the internet, and also the increasingly affordable means to access it. The availability of the applications and content has driven user desire for broadband access, and the increasing availability of broadband access has accelerated the internet's growth and usefulness. In turn, the customer's desire to use internet's content and applications has driven industry and research institutions to explore the potential means for providing access in an economical manner. Insatiable user demand and the rapidly expanding market for broadband access has fueled great innovation and creativity in the scientific and engineering communities. As the reader of this book can see, many different methods have received serious exploration, and a significant number of them have been widely deployed around the world.

The variety of different protocols and technologies for providing broadband access raises two obvious questions:

• Which protocol/technology is the “best?”
• Which protocol/technology will “win” in the market?

The short answer to these questions is that “it depends ...”. In other words, ...