Internet Speed: 1879-2011

Cat 1 - 1876

Used for POTS (Plain Old Telephone System), this is your standard phone line. On June 3, 1880, Bell conducted the world's first wireless telephone transmission between two buildings, some 213 meters apart.




Cat 2 - Mid 70's

Used primarily for token ring networks.
-4Mbps





Cat 3

100 pair cabling used for Ethernet 10Base-T
-10Mbps



Cat4

-16Mbps



Cat 5/Cat 5e

Cat 5 is for use with Ethernet 100Base-TX and is rated at 100Mbps.
Cat5e is for use with Ethernet 1000Base-T and is rated at 1,000Mbps



Cat 6

Has a higher frequency of 250Mhz compared to Cat 5e's 100Mhz
-1Gbps



Cat 7

Not widely accepted yet, this standard runs at 10 to 100Gbps



Fiber Optic - 2011

Fiber optics were made by creating the optical signal involving the use of a transmitter, relaying the signal along the fiber, ensuring that the signal does not become too distorted or weak, receiving the optical signal, and converting it into an electrical signal. On 22 April 1977, General Telephone and Electronics sent the first live telephone traffic through fiber optics at a 6 Mbit/s throughput in Long Beach, California.

As of April 29th 2011, researchers were able to reach speeds of 100Tbps. That is the equivalent of sending 3 months of HD video in one second! With dial-up internet (the first few Cat cables) it would take 49 minutes and 55 seconds just to download a 20MB file. For 3 months worth of HD video to be downloaded on a 56k dial-up connection we estimate that it would take about 24 years and double that if you have a 28.8K modem. The internet has come a LONG way in a very short amount of time. The convenience we have now in 2011 is worth being thankful for. I don't know if I can ever complain about a 'slow download' ever again.