broadband

1. 1
   noununcountable

   An Internet connection delivered over an existing line using different signal frequencies, such as ADSL or a cable modem.

   Most households now rely on broadband for streaming and video calls.

   Rural communities often wait years for broadband to reach their towns.

   Note

   Here the name comes from the engineering term. The connection carries data on extra frequencies over a line already in place, as ADSL and cable modems do, so no new wiring is needed. Like the engineering noun, it is usually uncountable: people have broadband, get broadband or wait for broadband, and rarely speak of a broadband.

2. 2
   adjective

   Relating to, using, or able to carry signals across a broad span of electromagnetic frequencies.

   The lab tested a broadband antenna capable of receiving signals across the spectrum.

   Broadband amplifiers boost many frequencies at once without distorting the signal.

   Oppositenarrowband

   Note

   A label for hardware and signals that sorts equipment into two camps. Broadband devices work across a wide, continuous range, while narrowband ones are tuned to a single frequency or a small band around it. The adjective is not comparable: a receiver either is broadband or is not, so "more broadband" and "very broadband" sound wrong.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   A wide, continuous band of electromagnetic frequencies.

   The detector captures broadband ranging from radio waves to visible light.

   Engineers allocated broadband to the satellite for high-volume data transfer.

   Note

   An engineer's word built plainly from broad and band, a band being a stretch of the frequency spectrum. Wide enough to hold many separate channels or signal components at once, it stands against the narrow bands that single transmissions occupy. As a noun it is usually uncountable: engineers allocate broadband or work in broadband, not a broadband.

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