Broadband in the USA: a long evolution

In the current society, the Internet is something the human population uses daily for information, entertainment, direction, and much more. But there was a time when internet was still premature; in fact, there was a time from which internet had to be born. This essay, in collaboration with Kristen Hinderliter, will explore the history and growth of broadband connections and internet in the United States of America. 

In 1957, the Advanced Research Projects Agency, also known as ARPA, was created by the United States’ Department of Defense in response to the Soviet Union’s recent Sputnik launch. The idea was that the Soviet Union was getting too far ahead in technological and research advancement; the Advanced Research Projects Agency was the United States government’s way of getting back into the competition. ARPA along with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, was supposed to recreate technical supremacy in the United States of America.

It was decided that the fastest and most efficient way to gain this superiority would require the knowledge and brain power of multiple experts of their fields in the United States. From this idea emerged the Information Process Techniques Office, or the IPTO. The IPTO was to be an easily accessible space to share and create information and ideas between the people. It was 1962 at this point, and the IPTO was being run by J.C.R. Licklider. It was Licklider’s dream to create an “Intergalactic Computer Network”. His vision for the internet’s capabilities took the world’s perspective of the computer from, essentially, a large mathematical calculator, to so much more. Licklider’s work created the outlines for many of the internet’s current uses, such as online banking, digital libraries, and user-friendly interfaces.

The first step to creating this “intergalactic” network involves a process called packet switching. Packet switching is a transmission process in a digital network that breaks down data into pieces, or packets, to then be distributed quickly and efficiently to other networks. Every packet has its own routing information and is channeled individually to the destination, where they are then reassembled.

In 1968, ARPA put out a contract worth $563,000 to design, create, install, test, and maintain interface message processors, or IMPS that would connect four main locations: the Stanford Research Institute, the University of California-Santa Barbara, the University of California-Los Angeles, and the University of Utah. In October of 1969, the Stanford Research Institute and the University of California-Los Angeles were connected. This was the beginning of ARPANET. Stanford and UCLA were the next to be connected to the system. It was during this time that the term “log in” was coined, a way to identify individual users on the same system. The log in still remains a widely used form of identification in the current society.

Various other kinds of programs began to cultivate from here, including programs designed to expand other programs. For example, Request for Comments, or RFC, was a publication used by the Internet Engineering Task Force to help develop, create, and grow ARPANET. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) was in charge of and responsible for the engineering issues involved with the internet activities. The RFC started out as a way to peer-review the workings of ARPANET, but have grown to be the official specifications and protocols for how the internet itself functions. Today there are over 4,000 RFC’s.

Also in this time, the basis for Telnet was set up. Telnet is short for Terminal Network. It is a user command used to access remote computers. It derived from the log in, and is essentially the same thing. It gives access to a specific computer and all the functions and clearances that have been allotted to that user.

In 1993, the World Wide Web was finally introduced to the United States by a British computer scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Berners-Lee wrote the three most fundamental programs in technology: HyperText Markup Language, HTML, is the standard markup language for creating web pages and web applications, Uniform Resource Identifier, or URI/URL, is a web address that specifies its location on a computer network, and Hypertext Transfer Protocol, or HTTP, is for transferring hypertext.

Dial-up internet access was limited to 56 kbps modems at this time. Broadband is a term used to describe any connections faster than dial-up, so it is an umbrella term for many other applications, such as cable or DSL. 1996 marked the earliest availability of broadband in North America. By 2000, there was a 50% increase in the number of subscriptions to broadband internet, and by 2010, over 65% of households had access to their own broadband connections.

The introduction of broadband boomed across the United States, leaving dial up in the dirt. The following is a chart showing the increase in broadband, and a correlated decrease in dial up usage.

We analyze international broadband evolution (here, the USA case) in this blog, in Research Group about Digital Journalism and Marketing and Broadband and in Research Group on Innovative Monetization Systems of Digital Journalism, Marketing and Tourism (SIMPED), from CECABLE,  Escola Universitària Mediterrani of UdG, UPF and Blanquerna-URL, in Twitter (@CECABLEresearch), Google+, in the group of LinkedIn, in the page of LinkedIn, in the group of Facebook, in Instagram (CECABLE), in Pinterest and in this blog. We will go in deep in the XXII Cable and Broadband Catalonia Congress (4-5 April, 22@, UPF).