As computer and networking technology have
advanced over the past few decades, the cost of the increasingly
sophisticated technology has fallen dramatically. Those falling prices
are at least partially responsible for the rising popularity of
connectivity solutions in the business world and in personal lives. Figures
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In the 1970s and 1980s, a PC that was considered state of the art for the time cost several thousand U.S. dollars. Online services existed, but with fees of U.S. $25 or more per hour of access, only big businesses and the wealthy could afford them. PC veterans can still remember the announcement of the Prodigy "bargain rates" of only U.S. $9.95 an hour for online access. This was at speeds of 1200 or 2400 baud, which today would be considered unusable. Today in the United States, for example, for under U.S. $1,000, users can buy a computer system that is capable of doing much more, and doing it better and faster, than the U.S. $500,000 mainframe version of 20 years ago. Internet access at speeds equivalent to T1 is available through Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) or cable modem for U.S. $30 to $40 per month, and prices are falling all the time. A user can get basic Internet access at 56 kbps for much less, or even free, if additional advertising on the screen can be tolerated.
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