Broadband and narrowband access - what is difference

Access may be broadband and narrowband. It’s necessary to understand what is  broadband and narrowband access. Everything faced with dial-up access – access to Internet with using series V protocols, last of them is V.92. V.92 protocol provides data rate up to 56 kbit/s. Obviously this rate is very small for today’s needs. Thus such small rates are according to narrowband access. Naturally broadband access is access with high data rates. And where is boundary between narrowband and broadband access? – that is question. There are different answers to this question given by different organizations.

ITU sets this boundary at 256 kbit/s.

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) sets the same boundary ‑ 256 kbit/s. OECD includes 34 countries now.

There is such organization – TM Forum (TeleManagement Forum), including 780 companies and 195 countries. It sets boundary rate of broadband access on level of 382 kbit/s.

          In USA Federal Communication Commission (FCC) defines boundary rate of broadband access, which is set at rate 4 Mbit/s.