Current Status and Future Projections of Broadband Internet:Functional and Technical Challenges, Individual and Social Impacts, Solutions and Strategies, and Emerging Technologies

The broadband Internet has revolutionized various aspects of human life and has had a profound impact on the world. More than 60% of individual activities and social interactions, meetings, communications, entertainment, education, employment, financial services and shopping, and other offline/online transactions are based on the Internet, which needs more comprehensive planning and attention. In this paper, we first raise and answer five questions about broadband Internet: What are the current status and future directions of this technology? Where and why does big data exist in broadband Internet technology? Which type of Internet access is preferable and which one needs more attention? What are functional/technical challenges and solutions to improve the current situation? What are the positive and negative individual/social impacts of broadband Internet? In addition to pointing out the place of broadband Internet in fourteen aspects, fifteen criteria to compare wired and wireless and key individual/social impacts (six for positive and six for negative) of broadband Internet are outlined. Moreover, issues that directly and/or indirectly affect the global development of broadband Internet are listed and twenty items on balanced sustainable development and strategic planning of broadband Internet are introduced. Furthermore, we propose ten spatio-temporal user/operator-centric strategies to improve the performance metrics of global broadband Internet, decrease its negative social effects, and reduce the digital divide in the world. Finally, we take a look at emerging technologies related to broadband Internet.