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The Future: Will T3 Like Speeds Ever Be Affordable?

Description: T3 is the mother of all internet connections. Designed to be used by large businesses and prohibitive to the general public because of its cost, it's something that the rest of us look at longingly, hoping that one day we too can experience such a fast speed. But will it ever happen?

The development and roll out of broadband internet services has been nothing short of high speed. While there is some debate over how good some of the services are - with questions over how fast a 3 Mbps service actually is most of the time, for example - there is no doubt that any kind of broadband leaves dial up looking like a poor cousin.

But there is no doubt that the best service - a T3 connection - is fast and reliable, and brings the desired level of speed and efficiency to the world of broadband internet.

The trouble is that it is designed purely for business use, and the monthly cost of this service makes it impossible to afford for individuals looking to up the speed of the internet connection they have coming into their own home.

So why is this option so expensive, and can we ever hope that it might become cheap enough to be available to the rest of us?

Maybe the real question here is whether there is any chance of an alternative to a T3 connection that offers the best in speed with the cheapest in prices. The reason that a T3 connection costs so much to have is that it works off a dedicated line. The only people using that line are the people within that company. Now a DSL (digital subscriber line) is a dedicated line, since it runs off your existing phone line, but you don't need to be a technical whizz to realize that a phone line is somewhat lacking in power compared to what's offered by a T3 connection.

A T3 connection also offers far more in the way of bandwidth, and it's these two aspects which need to be addressed in a more widespread way if we are ever to get the speeds associated with a T3 line without having to pay a high price for the privilege.

In the end we may have to rely on technological advances to figure out a way that a super fast connection could be achieved for individuals to take advantage of. It should be mentioned though that huge amounts of broadband are essential for large businesses in order to maintain the speed needed for individual applications and services. It is very likely that individuals wouldn't use anywhere near the maximum speeds offered (or even the maximum speeds generally achievable, allowing for some dipping in the service received) even if they were available at $20 a month, since their needs are very different from those a business has.

Faster broadband is definitely required for a lot of people, and a more consistent service across the country as a whole is certainly called for. But when it comes to T3 speeds becoming available country wide at rock bottom prices, that may well be a long way off yet.