Lesson 3-4

1. Read and translate the text:

THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET

It is estimated that thirty five to forty millions users cur­rently are on the Internet. According to a recent statistics, an average Internet call lasts five times as longer as the average regular telephone call. 10 percent of the Internet calls last 6 hours or longer. This can cause an overload and, in turn, cause telephone network to fail. The local network was designed for short calls which you make and then hang up, but Internet calls often occupy a line for hours. With so many users in the Inter­net and their number is growing by 200 percent annually, it certainly provides new challenges for the telephone companies. The Internet, up to the beginning of the 90s, was used only to read a different texts. Then in the early 90's, a way was made to see pictures and listen to a sound on the Internet. This break through made the Internet to be most demanded means of communication, data saving and transporting.

However, today's net is much more than just pictures, text and sound. The Internet is now filled with voice messages, video conferencing and video games. With voice massages, users can talk over the Internet for the price of the local phone call.

Nowadays we no longer have to own a computer to access the Internet. Now, devices such as Web TV allow our televi­sion to browse the Web and use Electronic Mail. Cellular phones are now also dialing up the Internet to provide e-mail and answering machine services. The telephone network was not designed and built to handle these sorts of things. Many telephone companies are spending enormous amounts of mo­ney to upgrade the telephone lines.

K. Kao and G. Hockman were the first to come up with the idea of using fiber optic cables, as opposed to copper wire, to carry telephone signals. Fiber optics uses pulses of light to transmit binary code, such as that used in computers and other electronic devices. As a result the amount of bandwidth is inc­redibly raised. Another solution for the problem is fast mo­dems which satisfy the need for speed.

By accessing the Net through the coaxial cable that pro­vides television to our homes, the speed can be increased 1,000 fold. However, the cable system was built to only send infor­mation one way. In other words, they can send stuff to us, but we can't send anything back, if there is no modem available.

Yet another way is being introduced to access the Inter­net, and that is through the use of a satellite dish just like the TV dishes currently used to deliver television from satellites in space to your home. However, like cable connection, the in­formation can only be sent one way.

Faster ways of connecting to the Internet may sound like a solution to the problem, but, just as new lanes on highways attract more cars, a faster Internet could attract many times more users, making it even slower than before.

To help solve the problem of Internet clogs, Internet providers are trying new ways of pricing for customers. So, in business time any connection to Net cost more than your con­nection in the night.

In conclusion, I should add that if we want to keep the Inter­net usable and fairly fast, we must not only improve the telephone lines and means of access, but also be reasonable in usage.

2. Mind the following words and word-combination:

network — мережа

to captivate — полонити

to log on — входити, підключатися

to last — тривати

overload — перевантаження

to grow (past grew, p.p.grown) — рости, збільшуватися

breakthrough — велике досягнення, прорив

voice massage — голосове послання

video conferencing — відео-конференц-зв'язок

web TV — веб-телебачення

to browse — переглядати

cellular phone — стільниковий телефон

to dialing up — набирати номер, дзвонити

answering machine — автовідповідач

to handle — звертатися, мати справу з

amount — кількість

fiber optic cables — оптиковолоконний кабель

opposed — тут замість

binary code — бінарний код, двоїнний код

amount of bandwidth — пропускна здатність

fast modem — швидкий модем

coaxial cable — коаксильний кабель

to increase 1,000 fold — збільшити(ся) у 1000 разів

satellite dish — супутникова тарілка

lane — лінії руху

clog — засмічення, перешкода

customer — клієнт, покупець

business time — бізнес-час