Cable vs. DSL

[MotionMan]

Does it bug anyone else that the guy puts his username below every single post??

Nope (and you just noticed this?)

MotionMan

 

[Fritzo]

DSL could easily run cable service out of business if the telco were not so greedy. DSL has a limit of 24Mbit asynchronous per pair currently, it has increased about every 2-3 years. Most homes are wired with 2 pairs allowing it to be 48Mbit up and down per home .The problem is telco likes to put out as few DSLAM as possible , often putting them too far apart and that is a problem as DSL is effected greatly by the distance the user is from the DSLAM. DSLAM can be deployed and cover a larger area at lower cost than the same speeds of cable and without each user effecting other users . It goes back to the telco mindset of don't invest if customers will pay , the service provided doesn't figure into it. Cable is the same way . It is just that the cable technology allows them to be more lax in there responses to customer complaints.

Here I am about 2000ft from the DSLAM and get 15Mbit up and down and it has never fluctuated in the years I have had it or with time of day like many cable services. That is using one pair and I can switch to 2 pairs by just making a phone call to increase that to 30Mbit. It all depends on the company providing the service not the technology.

Telcos are not investing in wired infrastructure much anymore. They're putting their money into wireless, which I believe will dominate within the next 5 years or so. The technology is maturing, it's much easier to deploy, it has the potential for more bandwidth, and it has a much larger coverage area.

Broadband over powerlines also has potential---insulated high capacity copper that's already going to every home in the US. There's a lot of red tape to go through on that unfortunately.

 

[911paramedic]

I have the AT&T $19.99/6Mbit deal, no complaints and it's hard to argue with the price.

 

[Tweak155]

My work pays for my internet at home so I got the Comcast extra package or whatever it is called where they add on like 8mbit. I get about 25mbit down and 3mbit up. Its not bad and I rarely ever have issues.

I still don't like Comcast, though.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Does it bug anyone else that the guy puts his username below every single post??

Nope.

 

[CurseTheSky]

I love my Charter 16Mbps connection. Usually it caps out around the expected 1-2MB/s, but frequently goes above that:

 

[James Bond]

 

[TridenT]

I want to know how you get such cheap business connections!

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

OP, aren't you from the Bay? I thought it's just AT&T vs. Comcast here.

For me I've tried both. I lived with AT&T for only 1 year but that was during college. I switched to Comcast the next year, and it was 3 mbps (DSL) vs 4mbps (Comcast). Within 2 months, Comcast bumped me to 6mbps. I graduated and went home, and in 6 months or so we got bumped to 12mbps as Comcast doubled their speeds. It's a no brainer when you want TV here too.

I think it's funny when people on their DSL download at 3mbps and take forever. I mean it really only matters when we talk about large files in the 10gb range. Sometimes I laugh at how my phone can hit 3.5mbps roughly using HSDPA. I suppose Elite DSL is always an option for a higher price, but considering you can get that nice $29.99 introductory Comcast rate with TV for such a low price, I'd say it's the better deal.

I do note that comcast sucks in certain areas. In Berkeley, it blows. The 6mbps upgrade was fine, but my ex-gf who had 2 years of school after I left never really got the 12mbps bump that I got back at home. Instead it just wavered around 6mbps and sometimes went higher. Either Comcast couldn't handle the traffic there, or they just failed to upgrade the East Bay in time. I got consistently less packet loss in the South Bay too, but my old apartment in Berkeley running 4-6mbps was pretty much OK for me.

BTW, I maintain 12mbps consistent downloads at home. 2mbps up consistently too. I'm very satisfied with Comcast. The only other issue I have at home is my line has weak signal, but I blame my house's wiring because after some troubleshooting I have a -8dB loss through the line running across the house (no splits). -15dB with 2 splitters. Yikes! And how do I still get consistent speeds? Hmmm.

 

[purbeast0]

well thanks to this thread, i now have 6Mb cable internet for the same price i was paying for 3Mb DSL.

when we moved into this apartment, the fastest cable I could get was 1Mb @ $45.99 so i said f that and got 3Mb dsl, month to month, renting their equipment, for $45.99.

then yesterday after reading this thread and checking out Clear i decided to look at the cable provider for my apartment and check out their speeds/prices. they werent listed on the site so i emailed them and found out I can get 6Mb for $39.99.

so called them today and after taxes and rental fee for modem, it is about $45 for 6Mb.

heh glad I could finally catch up to 2005!

 

[SlowSpyder]

Well, I finally got around to trying out our cable interenet (7Mb Road Runner from 4Mb DSL). I am hitting over 15Mb download, so that's a huge improvement. But, the upload is only .49Mb, that is under half what I used to get.

So as others have said, I would go with whatever fits your needs and you can get the better deal on. I do upload files from time to time, but download is much more important in the big picture for me. And, cable is $15/month cheaper for me, so I guess I really can't complain.

 

[MotionMan]

I do upload files from time to time, but download is much more important in the big picture for me.

Same here. My upload speed is not great now, but is three times as good as before. My download speed is awesome compared to DSL.

I guess I started a cable revolution with this thread?

MotionMan

 

[rudeguy]

can I play?

 

[MotionMan]

can I play?

That is more than a month old.

Stale data FTL.



motionMan

 

[zCypher]

I pay just shy of $80/month for unlimited 7.5mbps/820kbps cable with Videotron in Montreal.
Speedtest using Fibrenoir, 5ms ping, 7.88mbps download and 860kbps upload.

I've had it for about 10 months and in that time I experienced about 3 weeks of intermittent severe slowdowns. It would go as low as 0.5mbps at seemingly random times. Normally I can max out the connection even during so called "peak hours".

Other than that 3 week sketchy period the connection has been 100% good, but the price is too high. We have ADSL2+ 24mbps through Colbanet here but when I called they said I could only get normal DSL speeds at my location (so, 7mbps if I'm lucky).

I've always had super low ping while gaming even when downloading and streaming stuff in the background, so no issues there. And there is no configuration, it's basically plug and play.

Pricing in Quebec is demented though. In Ontario, Tekksavy offers 15mbps/1mbps unlimited transfer for $55. The same company in Quebec offers 7.5mbps/820kbps for $80!!

Have yet to see any decent fiber options, with the exception of Bell's recently released plans. They have download limits though, but do have reasonable overcharges compared to Videotron.

Edit: to answer the thread, Cable vs. DSL - I'd have to leave it at a draw. A friend of mine has Colba and gets almost identical performance as my cable connection, the only difference is he pays a lot less.

IMO the best connection is whatever offers the highest unlimited and unthrottled transfer. Unfortunately there's not much in the way of competition.

 

[Arkaign]

Obvious answer is obvious : it's different in every area, even within a metroplex. In some areas of DFW, Cable is amazingly fast, in other areas it's flaky, has horrendous upload speeds, and isn't that great downhill. Fios and to a lesser extent Uverse have seemed outstanding overall in the greater DFW area.

At the end of the day you could go to 1,000 neighborhoods and do testing and see lots of instances of cable being better than DSL, lots of instances of DSL being better than cable, lots of instances of one being completely unavailable, lots of instances of them both sucking, and so on.

The only answer is to do your research/testing/price comparison locally. If you live in city X, joe's city Y results with company/product A and B mean pretty much jack shit other than national policy stuff (capping, customer service quality, regional outage frequency, etc).

 

[Lifted]

Nothing beats a USR 56k with V.92 upgrade.

 

[Turin39789]

just tested my $45 10mb cable, got 5.18 MB down.

looked into the DSL offering as I think cable is going up $7, but the only offering without a home phone is $20 for 1.5 MB down.