Editing Broadband (section)

==Overview==
Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times. Its origin is in physics, [[acoustics]], and radio systems engineering, where it had been used with a meaning similar to "[[wideband]]",<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Attenborough|first1=Keith|title=Review of ground effects on outdoor sound propagation from continuous broadband sources|journal=Applied Acoustics|date=1988|volume=24|issue=4|pages=289–319|doi=10.1016/0003-682X(88)90086-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title= Antenna |author= John P. Shanidin |date= September 9, 1949 |website= US Patent 2,533,900 |url= http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT2533900&id=XdZVAAAAEBAJ |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111201160321/http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT2533900&id=XdZVAAAAEBAJ |archive-date= December 1, 2011 }} Issued December 12, 1950.</ref> or in the context of audio [[noise reduction system]]s, where it indicated a single-band rather than a multiple-audio-band system design of the [[compander]]. Later, with the advent of [[Data transmission|digital telecommunications]], the term was mainly used for transmission over [[Frequency-division multiplexing|multiple channels]]. Whereas a [[passband]] signal is also modulated so that it occupies higher frequencies (compared to a ''baseband'' signal which is bound to the lowest end of the spectrum, see [[line coding]]), it is still occupying a single channel. The key difference is that what is typically considered a ''broadband signal'' in this sense is a signal that occupies multiple (non-masking, [[Orthogonality#Telecommunications|orthogonal]]) passbands, thus allowing for much higher throughput over a single medium but with additional complexity in the transmitter/receiver circuitry.

The term became popularized through the 1990s as a marketing term for [[Internet access]] that was faster than [[Dial-up Internet access|dial-up access]] (dial-up being typically limited to a maximum of 56&nbsp;kbit/s). This meaning is only distantly related to its original technical meaning.

Since 1999, broadband Internet access has been a factor in [[public policy]]. In that year, at the [[World Trade Organization]] Biannual Conference called “''Financial Solutions to Digital Divide''” in Seattle, the term “Meaningful Broadband” was introduced to the world leaders, leading to the activation of a movement to close the [[digital divide]]. Fundamental aspects of this movement are to suggest that the equitable distribution of broadband is a fundamental human right.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Craig Warren |title=Digital corporate citizenship : the business response to the digital divide |date=2002 |publisher=The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University |location=Indianapolis |isbn=1884354203 |url=https://iucat.iu.edu/iuk/5619796 |access-date=15 March 2021 |archive-date=5 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505180835/https://iucat.iu.edu/iuk/5619796 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Personal computing facilitated easy access, manipulation, storage, and exchange of information, and required reliable data transmission. Communicating documents by images and the use of high-resolution graphics terminals provided a more natural and informative mode of human interaction than do voice and data alone. [[Video teleconferencing]] enhances group interaction at a distance. High-definition entertainment video improves the quality of pictures, but requires much higher transmission rates.

These new data transmission requirements may require new transmission means other than the present overcrowded radio spectrum.<ref name=Hui>{{cite book |author=Hui J. |title= Switching and traffic theory for integrated broadband networks |publisher= Kluwer Academic Publishers |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-7923-9061-9}}</ref><ref name=Broadband>{{cite book |author1=Sexton M. |author2=Reid A. |title=Broadband Networking: ATM, SDH and SONET |publisher=Artech House Inc. |location=Boston, London |year=1997 |isbn=0-89006-578-0 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/broadbandnetwork0000sext }}</ref> A modern telecommunications network (such as the broadband network) must provide all these different services (''multi-services'') to the user.