It would have taken more than 11 minutes to download over a dial-up internet connection.

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Not merely dial-up Internet connection (the U.N. has decreed that before), but the kind of fast, seamless service Americans find at any Starbucks.

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"If you think about a dial-up connection to the Internet and I was to get a very big file -- a huge file -- something that normally would take me on a dial-up connection 10 hours to download, I would download using this at one second, " explains Terabeam CEO Dan Hesse.

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It requires a base station that needs to be connected to a PC, but will work with any kind of Internet connection, whether broadband or dial-up.

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New technologies due to be rolled out across Europe in the coming year will give mobile users a permanent connection to the internet avoiding lengthy dial up and download times.

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You can do all this even if your Internet connection is a creaky-slow dial-up modem.

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Earlier this year it launched a network adapter for its PlayStation 2 gaming system that lets customers play against each other over the Internet using either a dial-up modem or a broadband connection.

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