Section 11: Housing - Head of household
B. Characteristics of Occupied Dwelling Unit and Land Tenancy
51. Household access to the internet
What type/s of internet access services are used by this household?
[] 00 None
[] 01 Analogue (Dial-up)
[] 02 Other narrowband
[] 03 Digital subscriber line (DSL) (e.g. Blink, Greendot)
[] 04 Cable modem (e.g. Flow)
[] 05 Other fixed broadband
[] 06 Mobile broadband (e.g. Blink on the Go)
[] 08 Don't know
Interviewer: Multiple responses can be shaded.
Section 10 - Individual use of information and communication technology
10.5. Internet
The Internet is a world-wide public computer network. It provides access to a number of communication services including the World Wide Web and carries e-mail, news, entertainment and data files, irrespective of the device used (not assumed to be only via a computer - it may also be by mobile phone, PDA, games machine, digital TV etc.). Access can be via a fixed or mobile network.
Section 11 - Housing
11.12. Household access to Internet
Internet access from home refers to the ability of the household to connect to the public Internet using TCP/IP protocols. Internet access at home is meant to include both narrowband and broadband connections. Broadband may be defined loosely as transmission capacity with sufficient bandwidth to permit combined provision of voice, data and video. The lower limit of broadband access is set at 256Kbit/sec as the sum of uploading and downloading capacities. It is implemented mainly through xDSL, cable, wireless local area network, satellite broadband Internet or fiber-to-the-home Internet access. Narrowband access is typically carried up through dial-up, modems, ISDNs and some mobile cellular phones.
Note that since households can use more than one type of access service, multiple responses are possible.
(i) Narrowband - Narrowband includes analogue modem (dial-up via standard phone line), ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), DSL at speeds below 256 kilobits per second and mobile phone and other forms of access with a download speed of less than 256 kilobits per second
(ii) ISDN - ISDN stands for "Integrated Services Digital Network." ISDN is a data transfer technology that can transfer data significantly faster than a dial-up modem. ISDN enables wide-bandwidth digital transmission over the public telephone network, which means more data can be sent at one time. A typical ISDN connection can support transfer
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rates of 64 kilobits or 128 kilobits of data per second. While these speeds are faster than what you can get with a dial-up modem, the newer DSL technology can support even faster transfer rates.
(iii) Dial Up (Analogue) - Dial-up refers to an Internet connection that is established using a modem that connects the computer to standard phone lines, which serve as the data transfer medium. When a user initiates a dial-up connection, the modem dials a phone number of an Internet Service Provider that is designated to receive dial-up calls. The ISP then establishes the connection, which usually takes about ten seconds and is accompanied by several beeping and buzzing sounds.
(iv) Broadband - This refers to high-speed data transmission in which a single cable can carry a large amount of data at once. The most common types of Internet broadband connections are cable modems (which use the same connection as cable TV) and DSL modems (which use your existing phone line). Because of its multiple channel capacity, broadband has started to replace narrowband, the single-channel technology originally used in most computer networks.
(v) DSL - Stands for "Digital Subscriber Line." It is a medium for transferring data over regular phone lines and can be used to connect to the Internet. It is much faster than the dial up connection and allows download speeds of up to about 1.5 megabits (not megabytes) per second, and upload speeds of 128 kilobits per second.
(vi) Cable Modem - A cable modem is used for connecting to the Internet and is much faster than a typical dial-up modem. Cable modems support data transfer rates of up to 30 Mbps, over 500 times faster. A cable modem does not connect to a phone line but to a local cable TV line. This allows a continuous connection to the Internet.
(vii) Mobile broadband - Mobile broadband refers to technologies at speeds of at least 256 kilobits per second, in one or both directions, such us Wideband CDMA Access which can be via any device (handheld computer, laptop or mobile cellular telephone etc.).