The present maximum over voice telephone lines will remain.  (Despite the claims of the hardware manufacturers, 56K has always been just above the theoretical maximum.  No-one really connects at 56K through a voice telephone line.)  Note the possible confusion between bits and bytes.  Modem speeds are always quoted in bits per second, but we're more interested in the computer word, or byte, that lands in our computer.  In a general computer, a byte is precisely eight bits, although for audio and video formats it can be as high as 24 bits.

Broadband internet changed all this. Served through a cable TV connection, or as a piggy-back on a conventional phone line (ADSL), download of a megabit every few seconds is commonplace (although upload is slower). Around a half of US households now enjoy broadband Web access. This makes page access almost instantaneous, and enables live audio and video feeds.

In ascending order of bandwidth needs, the Web can carry text, graphics, sound and moving graphics (aka video).  As bandwidth of our communications connection increases, we will see media and communications forms converge (a badly overused word) further.  In practice the systems in place limit progress because they satisfy people's needs now, and a tremendous inertia has to be overcome to improve things.  The advantages of interactive control over our home media requirements deserve a long essay, but will become increasingly obvious as creators and consumers develop new forms together.  For now, we will talk only about the practical present.