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Technically, it's a link in which information is sent as variations in higher-frequency carrier waves--much like the way musical tunes are carried on the radio waves belonging to your favorite broadcast stations. That's in contrast to a "baseband" connection where waveforms or pulses are sent in their original form--as in the single program you get at any one time on a public address system. Cable TV and most links between switching nodes in the telephone network are broadband, while links between telephone central offices and individual subscribers are still usually baseband. Broadband equipment is more expensive than baseband, both because it must handle the greater complexity of a carrier plus signal and because higher-frequency equipment is generally more costly. But at this point, it's the only practical way to transmit video, interactive multimedia, and multiple digital channels over distances of more than a few kilometers.
