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Most cable TV systems use coaxial cable and fiber-optic lines for their links, and both these types of wiring can carry data at far higher rates than the twisted-pair wires used for local telephone connections. So at least in theory, a cable-TV system should be able to transmit data at much higher rates than can be carried over a telephone line. However, there's no accepted standard for linking computers to cable systems. First-generation cable modems were used mostly to connect internal Ethernet-based local area networks (LANs) belonging to businesses, schools, or other large institutions that occupied multiple locations within a metropolitan area. A number of firms are now developing cable modems that could be used by Internet Service Providers to offer high-speed service to individual users at speeds up to several megabits per second. It remains to be seen whether cable firms will find it feasible to make the needed additions to their end of the system and whether the whole system will prove a more attractive proposition than forthcoming high-speed technologies based on telephone wiring.
