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When Datanet started in the mid-90s the fastest – and only – way to connect to the Internet was by dial-up. Dial-up speeds were typically either 28.8kbp/sec or, later on, 56kbp/sec. To help put this in perspective I am going to relate this to a donkey and cart speed of a leisurely 1MP/H. Towards the end of the 90s, businesses started using ISDN for Internet access at bonded speeds of 128kbp/sec. That equates to a heady 3MP/H, using our analogy.
ISDN also had the added advantage that it was digital. Connections were instant, unlike the dial-up modem which did a lot of squawking before it got connected. In the late 90s and early 00s, BT introduced broadband ADSL on their (old) 20CN network. Broadband ADSL was significantly different in that A) it was always connected and B) it was much faster.
First generation ADSL was available as a 512kbps download service (lets say 10MP/H) all the way up to a 2000kbp/sec or 2Mb/sec service, or a galloping horse speed of 40MP/H. Now we're beginning to get faster...
Later on, around 2004, came the first of the “up to” services. Now xDSL is delivered over the PSTN telephone network and is very dependent on the length and quality of the copper from the BT Exchange to the premises (or home). So where the length was short and the quality of the copper was good, speeds of “up to 8Mbp/sec” could be achieved. Which means we're now talking performance car speeds of “up to 100MP/H”!
Meanwhile, BT were also developing their 21CN – or twenty first century network – at this time, and deploying it across UK exchanges. The 21CN network allowed the provision of ADSL2+ with speeds of “up to 24Mb/sec” or a near land speed record of some 500MP/H.
Today we are benefiting from FTTC (or fibre to the cabinet)... Remember I said that speed was determined by the length and quality of the PSTN copper? Well what about if you replaced most of that copper from the exchange to the cabinet at the top of your street with fibre, capable of transmitting data at the speed of light?
We’re not quite at the speed of light, but fibre does provide a service of either 40Mb/sec or 80Mb/sec. Using our same land speed analogy this means that – in just 20 short years – we've gone from carrying data at 1MP/H on a horse-and-cart to going at 1600MP/H in a Mach 3 fighter jet!
