Broadband internet

What good is it? Well, really good, but like many things it will only give what you know to take. Sure, you know it can bring people together, unlock your secret potential and change the way you watch, look and listen – but how? uSwitch.com opens up about some of the most valuable, even jaw dropping aspects of the high speed internet.

Browse the internet faster than ever before – most pages load almost instantaneously. Email is transmitted before you can say ‘Royal Mail’.

The music world is already well down the digital road, and with great services like iTunes and Napster, you’ll be able to find just about anything you’re looking for using the internet, buy it and be listening in seconds.

And with broadband speeds as fast as they are these days, streaming video is now a real possibility. In the coming months, we’ll be hearing a lot more about Video on Demand (VoD) and Internet Protocol TV (IPTV), which represents a giant step toward a digitally convergent world. They tell us to imagine working, playing, relaxing, communicating all on one very whizzy box…

Talking on the phone can actually mean two things with broadband: on the one hand, your phone line will be free, so you can call your mum even while you’re searching on the internet and on the other, you can use one of the constantly evolving Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services which allow you to call computer to computer for free or computer to phone for nearly free.

Maybe you’ve heard the phrase ‘Web 2.0’ badmintoning between experts and aficionados lately, but believe it or not, there is something very real behind this particular piece of hype. The next wave of web evolution is here, and what it’s starting to give us is what the internet always promised to be – a world wide community, every bit as rich and bending as imagination. The whole world is now blogging, tagging, talking, searching, sharing.